REESE LIBRARY : Ml UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Cla&t LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH QUEEN ELIZABETH. FROM A PAINTING BY ZUCCHERO, IN THE POSSESSION OF CHARLES W. WOOD, ESQ. LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH BY THE REV. F. O. WHITE, M.A. ' Speak of me as I am ; nothing extenuate ; Nor set down aught in malice." SHAKESPEARE. LONDON SKEFFINGTON & SON, PICCADILLY .iH. tfjc ucm anU f$.1&.$. tfjc Prince of S2EaUs 1898 W4- :- ' ; t PREFACE. THIS work comprises seventy-six Lives, commencing with William Barlow, consecrated in 1536, and ending with John Jegon, consecrated in 1603. Nearly every book bearing on the subject has been carefully read, and, where necessary, used ; but the material employed has been largely taken from manuscripts which have either never been printed or, if so, seldom come in the way of the general reader. In the former case they have, wherever it was possible, been con- sulted in the originals, and exactly quoted as there given. Among them may be mentioned the State Papers at the Public Record Office ; the large collections at the British Museum ; those at Lambeth, including the archiepiscopal registers ; the Petyt Papers at the Inner Temple ; and last, but not least, the most interesting and important collection at Hatfield, which, by the kindness of the Marquis of Salisbury, the author was allowed to consult. Of these, nearly two hundred volumes were carefully perused, and extracts made where judged necessary. 3 102(1 vi PREFACE. While the general ecclesiastical history of the period is, of course, dealt with, especially in the memoirs of Archbishops Parker, Grindal, Whitgift, and Bancroft, the account of events of less national and public importance is a decided feature of the book. The Queen's working of the " other order " clause in the Act of Uniformity in matters quite foreign to it, her illegal extension of her ecclesiastical supremacy to affairs beyond its sphere, her treatment of the bishops in suspending, imprisoning, and robbing them at pleasure, all have special notice. The private details of the lives of the Elizabethan prelates also receive close attention, and throw, it is believed, a side light on the history of those times both interesting and important. Their virtues, learn- ing, and piety are duly recorded, as also are their vices and their crimes, since the book would not be a faithful chronicle were it otherwise. To some of them, indeed, an amount of attention has been paid hardly, perhaps, due to their historical or literary consequence ; but these memoirs are so illustrative of the age that such treatment seemed unavoidable. Of these prelates the chief are Scambler of Norwich, Freake, also of Norwich, Cheyney of Gloucester, Middleton of St. David's, Overton of Lichfield and Coventry, Cotton of Exeter, and Bennet of Hereford. In connection with this subject, too, the social state of the clergy, the u beggerly curats," as one bishop termed them, is brought to view. The Queen herself is, of course, a very prominent figure throughout, -but it is to be regretted that the worst aspect of her character has to be presented PREFACE. vii to the reader. In the lives of her bishops she will appear, not as a great sovereign ruling a nation with a wisdom almost inspired, and whose greatest earthly happiness lay in the affection of her people, but as a cruel despot tyrannising over a helpless set of men whom she regarded as being peculiarly her own creatures, and whom her policy had so isolated from the sympathy of all classes of society that she felt she could treat them pretty much as she chose. In that treatment of the "contempt flocke," as Archbishop Parker called them on account of it, their royal mistress exhibited the heartlessness, vanity, spite, caprice, penuriousness and unprincipled greed which, though not the main features of her character, were repulsively prominent and nearly always in evidence. CONTENTS. Names of Bishops in order of their Consecration. PAGE BARLOW, W. (1536) ... ... ... ... ... i KlTCHIN (1545) ... ... ... ... ... II SCORY (1551) ... ... ... ... ... ... 13 CURWEN (1555) ... ... ... ... ... 20 PARKER, M. (1559) ... ... ... ... ... 24 GRINDAL (1559) ... ... ... ... ... 62 Cox (1559) 78 MEYRICK, R. (1559) ... ... ... ... 96 SANDYS (1559) ... 97 BULLINGHAM, N. (1560) ... ... ... ... IO8 JEWEL (1560) ... ... ... ... ... ... 109 YOUNG, T. (1560) ... ... ... ... ... 121 DAVIES, R. (1560) ... ... ... ... ... 123 GUEST (1560) ... ... ... ... ... 127 BERKELEY (1560) ... ... ... ... ... 135 BENTHAM (1560) ... ... ... ... ... 138 ALLEY (1560) ... ... ... ... ... ... 142 PARKHURST (1560) .. ... ... ... ... 143 HORNE, R. (1561) ... ... ... ... ... 153 SCAMBLER (I56l) ... ... ... ... ... 158 BEST (1561) ... ... ... ... ... ... 161 PlLKINGTON (1561) ... ... ... ... ... 163 CONTENTS. I'AGE DOWNHAM (1561) ... ... ... ... ... 167 DAVIES, T. (1561) ... ... ... ... ... 171 CHEYNEY (1562) ... ... ... ... ... 172 JONES, H. (1566) 177 ROBINSON, N. (1566) ... ... ... ... ... 179 BARNES (1567) ... ... ... ... ... 181 CURTEIS (1570) ... ... ... ... ... ... 186 COOPER (1571) ... ... ... ... ... 189 BRADBRIDGE (1571) ... ... ... ... ... 192 FREAKE (1572) 193 HUGHES (1573) ... ... ... ... ... ... 196 BLETHIN (1575) i 99 PIERS, J. (1576) 199 AYLMER (1577) ... ... ... ... ... 202 WHITGIFT (1577) ... ... ... ... ... 215 MAY (1577)-. ... 249 YOUNG, J. (1578) ; 251 MlDDLETON (1579) ... ... ... ... ... 253 WOLTON (1579) 259 CHADERTON (1579) ... ... ... ... ... 264 WATSON, J. (1580) 269 OVERTON (1580) ... ... ... ... ... 271 BULLINGHAM, J. (1581) ... ... ... ... ... 277 GODWIN, T. (1584) ... ... ... ... ... 280 WlCKHAM (1584) ... ... ... ... ... 284 ROWLAND (1585) ... ... ... ... ... 286 WESTPHALING (1586) ... ... ... ... ... 291 BELLOT (1586) ... ... ... ... ... 295 BICKLEY (1586) ... ... ... ... ... ... 296 HUTTON, M. (I.) (1589) ... ... ... ... 298 FLETCHER (1589) ... ... ... ... ... 308 UNDERHILL (1589) ... ... ... ... ... 316 BABINGTON (1591) ... ... ... ... ... 317 COLDWELL (1591) ... ... ... ... ... 320 STILL (1593) 326 RUDD (1594) 329 CONTENTS. xi PAGE REDMAN (1595) ... 334 MATTHEW (1595) ... ... ... ... ... 335 MORGAN, W. (1595) ... ... ... ... ... 343 DAY (1596) 347 VAUGHAN (1596) ... ... ... ... ... 352 BlLSON (1596) ... ... ... ... ... 356 WATSON, A. (1596) ... ... ... ... ... 374 BANCROFT, R. (1597) ... ... ... ... 375 ROBINSON, H. (1598) ... ... ... ... ... 385 GOLDSBOROUGH (1598) ... ... ... ... 390 COTTON, W. (1598) 391 COTTON, H. (1598) ... 397 ROWLANDS (1598) ... ... ... ... ... 400 HETON (1600) ... ... ... ... ... 401 DOVE (1601) ... ... ... ... ... ... 405 GODWIN, F. (1601) ... ... ... ... ... 408 BENNET (1603) ... ... ... 4 n JEGON (1603) ... ... ... ... ... 416 OF TH OF 4LIF< LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. WILLIAM BARLOW. -1568. BISHOP OF ST. DAVID'S, 1536; BATH AND WELLS, 1549; CHICHESTER, 1559. THOUGH Bishop Barlow was a Welshman by descent, he was born in Essex. There is no evidence of his having been a member either of Oxford or Cambridge, but he was an Augustinian canon of St. Osyth Monastery, Essex, and held the Priories of Blackmore, Tiptree (1509), and Lees (1515) in that county. Luther's treatise on "Justification by Faith" set his "harte so on fire," that he visited Germany to see its author and the other reformers, 1 with the result that he became a Protestant, and wrote and published "The Buryall of the Masse" to confute the dogma of Transubstantiation. His " Convycious Dialogue " followed, written, but not published, in which he attacked Cardinal Wolsey for having procured the dissolution of several religious houses, including his own monastery at Bromhill, for the support of his college at Oxford. He also published several similar treatises dealing with the corruptions of the Church of Rome. His zeal carried him too far, for in a list 1 "Dialogue," second edition, 1553. 2 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. of prohibited books published in 1529, by the order of Henry VIII., "The Buryall of the Masse" was in- cluded ; 1 and as the royal opinion was the guide of Barlow's, he at once wrote to the king retracting the obnoxious treatise. Nothing could be more explicit than the terms which he applied to his former views, which he declared to be " detestable heresyes," into which he had been led "through the fendes insti- gacyon." 2 In January, 1530, the king sent him, with others, on an embassy to Rome to promote his divorce from Queen Catharine, and on his return he composed another " Dyalogue," 3 equally " convycious " with the former one, only that it was now against Luther, and not for him, and which Burnet describes as being "one of the most virulent invectives against the Reformation that was written at that time." 4 This language is certainly justified by the treatise ; for in it Barlow writes of Luther as the " Cheyfe Captaine of new heretikes, bringer forth of old heresyes ; " while Protestantism is branded as "that raylinge relygion," and its adherents a " frantike fraternitie and synfull synagogue of Sathan ; " while its doctrines were "horrible and haynous heresies." There is much reason for the belief that in the composition of this work Barlow's pen did not set forth his real opinions, 5 though, indeed, he must be credited with a marvellous versatility of intellect, which accounts for Cranmer's observation respecting him. For at the end of a long debate, when Barlow had 1 Strype's "Memorials," I. i. p. 255. 2 Cotton MSS. : Cleopatra, E. iv. 121. This letter is undated, and Strype supposes it to have been written to Queen Mary, and to have expressed his recantation of Protestantism, but internal evidence quite disproves his theory. * " A Dyalogue describing the Orygynall Grounds of the Lutheran Faccyons and many of their Abusys." 8vo. Lond., by W. Rastall, 1531. From "Catalogue of Books in Bodleian," second edition. London, 1553 : J. Cawood. 4 Burnet's "History of the Reformation," ed. Pocock, ii. p. 443. 5 See/^/, p. 9. WILLIAM BARLOW. 3 with great seeming seriousness expressed his opinions, the archbishop remarked that it was all very true, but that his " brother Barlowe " in half an hour would teach the world to believe it but a jest. 1 The Roman Catholics, of course, were delighted with the book, and Stokesley, Bishop of London, ordered it to be read by every curate in his diocese. 2 Its circulation, indeed, was so great, that it soon got out of print through the type being worn out. 3 Such a man was pretty sure to keep pace with the changes of the times, however great they may have been ; and whether the question of the hour was the dissolution of the monasteries, the royal divorce, or the king's ecclesiastical supremacy, Barlow was in- variably one of its keenest advocates. Parliament, both Houses of Convocation, and the two Universities having at this time acknowledged the last of these, as it had done the others, and thus transferred all ecclesiastical power from spiritual persons as repre- sented in the pope to the sovereign as the repre- sentative of the nation, Barlow eagerly accepted the doctrine, and exceeded most men in the thoroughness of his belief in it ; for he presently held and taught that the royal nomination alone made a man a bishop, and that consecration was a superfluous ceremony. 4 At this time the new queen, Anna Boleyn, had given him the Priory of Haverfordwest, whereupon he at once went down to Wales to induce the monks to accept the king's ecclesiastical supremacy, and so far succeeded that five of them (July 31, 1534) declared their assent to it. The non-subscribing canons, however, instigated by the bishop of the diocese, accused Barlow to the Privy Council, on which he left the country, and exchanged his priory 1 Chalmers' " Biographical Dictionary." 2 Cooper's " Athenoe Cantabrigienses," vol. i. p. 277. 3 Preface to second edition, 1553. 4 See/orf, p. 5- 4 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. there for that of Bisham, in Berkshire, one of much greater value. In his last Dialogue he had strongly censured the translation of the Scriptures ; but three years had elapsed since then, and the wind had changed; and the weathercock Barlow had changed with it. Accordingly, he joined Convocation in their petition to the king, in 1534, for an English version of the Scriptures. In the December of that year, Henry, who had made him a privy councillor on his return from Wales, despatched him on an embassy to James V. of Scotland, to acquaint him with the progress of the Reformation, in the hope that he might be led to favour it. The journey was fruitless, for that monarch was under the control of the Guises, 1 and, as Barlow wrote, the governing power in Scotland was " none else but the Papisticall clergy," 2 whom, in a letter to Cromwell, he briefly, but forcibly, described as being "in all poyntes the pope's pestylent creatures, very lymmes of the devyll." 3 While in Scotland he was made Bishop of St. Asaph, the royal assent to his election being dated February 21, 1536; but before his consecration he was removed to St. David's, and was consecrated bishop some time in June, 1536. The question whether that consecration ever took place has occasioned a great controversy, into the merits of which it is needless to enter at large. There is no evidence of it in the Archbishop's Register or elsewhere, though in that register his election (April 10, 1536), the royal assent to it (April 20), and his confirmation at Bow Church (April 21) are all duly recorded. These documents, at that time, were separate parchments, and not bound up in a 1 James V. was the son of James IV. and Margaret, sister of Henry VIII., and had married Mary of Guise. 2 Calendar State Papers, Henry VIII., vol. x. 3 Cotton MSS. : Caligula, B. iii. 194. WILLIAM BARLOW. 5 volume as now ; and thus the record of his consecra- tion may easily have been lost or stolen. There were two other bishops, Sampson of Chichester and Rugge of Norwich, consecrated at the same time, but of whose consecration no documentary evidence exists, yet no one has ever raised a doubt as to their having been duly consecrated ; and for the reason, it must be supposed, that there was no motive for doing so. That the omission in the Archbishop's Register is by no means proof of non-consecration is shown by the case of John Skip, Bishop of Hereford, whose consecration does not appear in the register at Lambeth; but the want is supplied in that of Hereford, where his consecra- tion at Lambeth by Archbishop Cranmer is recorded. Soon after his consecration, Bishop Barlow visited his diocese, and on November 12, 1536, preached a sermon in his cathedral, not only strongly Protestant, but of a most Erastian type. It appears from the articles of accusation, which two months afterwards were preferred against him, 1 that he declared that two cobblers met together in the name of God con- stituted a true Church, and that the king's nomination of laymen was all that was required to make them bishops. 2 He also denounced, in his usual vigorous style, the "barberouse ignorance" of the Welsh and its concomitant vice and superstition. Having made Wales too hot to hold him, he re- turned to England, where he assisted in that important book, "The Institution of a Christian Man," published in 1537, and signed by the king. Containing ex- positions of the Creed, the Sacraments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, it was, in the main, strongly Protestant, especially in its plain teaching of justification by faith in Christ only. In 1 Cotton MSS. : Cleopatra, E. v., 383. 2 Hooker also held the validity of such ordination where a bishop could not be had, since the whole Church Visible is the true original subject of all power. See his " Works," ed. Keble, III. i. p. 231. 6 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. 1539 Bishop Barlow both spoke and voted, but with- out success, against Gardiner's Bill of the Six Articles, commonly called the Bloody Statute, from the severity of its penalties. In 1540 he was, with other bishops, appointed by Convocation to translate the New Testament, his portion being the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. He was also appointed by Henry, together with Bishop Scory and others, to serve on a commission to determine certain points of doctrine, when Cranmer spoke of the rite of the consecration of bishops as being but a " comely ceremony," the essential require- ment being the royal mandate, and observed that the reason which led the Apostles to ordain bishops was "because they lacked a Christian prince." Barlow went further, declaring that the words used by the bishops in conferring orders did not " bind." 1 As was to be expected, the reign of Edward, which was so eminently favourable to the development of advanced Protestantism, brought Barlow well out to the front, and he preached a sermon at Court, February 29, 1548, so wildly and strenuously in defence of the principles of the Reformation, its abuses included, that Bishop Gardiner wrote a letter to the Protector, Somerset, bitterly complaining of what he termed his " tatling in the pulpit." 2 But Gardiner was in the shade, and no notice was likely to be taken of any complaint he might make. Nor was it : on the contrary, within a year from the delivery of this sermon Barlow was translated to the valuable Bishopric of Bath and Wells, February 29, 1549, through the influence of Somerset. 8 He showed his gratitude to his patron in the following year by selling him seven manors of the 1 Burnet's "History of the Reformation," ed. Pocock, vol. iv. pp. 443-467. Foxe's " Acts and Monuments," ed. Townshend, vi. pp. 24, 25. * Rymer's " Fcedera," xv. 169. WILLIAM BARLOW. 7 see, together with the palace at Wells, with its " scite, circuit, and precinct," for the nominal value of two thousand pounds, of which only five hundred were ever paid. He was not, however, a novice in the art of Church robbery, for he had previously, when Bishop of St. David's, given the Lamphey estate to his godson, the Earl of Essex, in exchange for rectorial tithes of very inadequate value. 1 To spoli- ation was added sacrilege, for he dragged the corpses of his predecessors from their tombs, for the sake of the leaden coffins which enclosed them, and pulled down the brass statues of ancient benefactors from the west front of the cathedral, which he sold to a London alderman. But Heaven itself, as men said, seemed to protest against the outrage, for the ship that was carrying the statues to Bristol sunk in the Channel, and the alderman became a bankrupt. Barlow's episcopal rule was somewhat arbitrary, especially when dealing with a Romanist He deprived the dean of his cathedral for, as is said, having annexed a prebend to his deanery. In Cranmer's opinion Dean Goodman deserved the punishment, but the bishop had no right to inflict it. 2 Barlow, by his conduct, had incurred prcemunire^ for which he had to obtain a pardon from the Crown, but the deprivation remained in force. From the letters of this dean we learn some particulars about Barlow's conduct at Wells ; though, of course, coming from so prejudiced a witness, they are probably exaggerated. He preached " charyte," but did not practise it, for he evicted his tenants and treated them very "un- charitably, contrary to his prechynge." The result was that the people hated him, and though at first " the whole Churche was to lytle to receyve hys audience 1 " Diocesan Histories : Bath and Wells." 2 State Papers, Edward VI. , vol. xiii. I. Date, January 5, 1550-1 : Dean Turner to Sir W. Cecil. 8 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. that were wonte to resorte unto hym," after a short time they were able to " be recey vyd yn a lytle chaple." * After the fall of Somerset, Barlow was still employed by the Government ; for, notwithstanding his levity, which made Cranmer distrust him, he was too useful a man to be discarded. Accordingly, in 1553 he was made a commissioner for the revision of the ecclesiastical laws ; 2 but the death of Edward on July 6, 1553, and the accession of Mary, brought his public life to a close, at least for a time, and he at once resigned his bishopric. 3 A second edition of his " Dyalogue on the Lutheran Faccyons," which had been first published in 1531, was now printed, and it is necessary in considering Barlow's life to consider this remarkable treatise. Three questions arise respecting it. The first : Did Barlow write it ? The second : Did he mean it ? The third : Did it represent his opinions at the time of its publication in 1553 ? It may fairly be assumed that the title-page which bore his name as its author was correct, despite Bishop Burnet's conjecture that it was " a forgery cast on his name to disgrace the Reformation." 4 Dr. Turner, Dean of Wells, and Barlow's intimate friend, in his " Spiritual Physick " also refers to Barlow's having written it, and his argument seems to answer the other two questions. For it is a bitter attack on Bishop Gardiner for the way in which he, or " at y e leste some of his," had "handeled MaisterBarlowe,"in reprintinghis Dialogue, since he himself also had once written a book, 5 which at the time was contrary to his real opinions, and of 1 State Papers, Edward VI., vol. x. 19. : Dean Goodman to Barwick, August 5, 1550. 2 Burnet's " History of the Reformation," ed. Pocock, v. p. 64. 3 So stated in the Letters Patent of his successor, Bourne. 4 "History of the Reformation," ii. p. 443. 5 "De Vera Obedientia," written by Bishop Gardiner in 1534 against the ecclesiastical supremacy of the pope. WILLIAM BARLOW. 9 which he was now ashamed. The parallel thus drawn between the situations of Barlow and Gardiner com- pels us to believe that in Dean Turner's opinion the Dialogue, even at the time of its composition, never represented Barlow's real opinions, and that its re- publication was an act of inconsistent cruelty on the part of Bishop Gardiner or his agents, to discredit Barlow, who at that time ranked with Cranmer and Ridley as an able defender of Protestantism. We may also be quite certain that if at the accession of Queen Mary he had really held the opinions contained in the Dialogue, he would not have been treated so severely as he was. For some time, however, he remained unmolested, but he felt his position to be so insecure, that early in November, 1554, he and Cardmaker, a prebendary of Wells, fled disguised as merchants, but were arrested on board ship, and, after examination before the Privy Council, were imprisoned in the Fleet. 1 The prebendary stood firm to his Protestant opinions, for which, on May 30, 1555, he perished at the stake ; but the bishop is said to have re- canted, either then or afterwards, and finally to have escaped to Germany. But what the extent of his recantation was, supposing he made any, and whether his escape was by discharge or through the con- nivance of the authorities, are subjects on which we have no precise information. He spent his short exile at Emden, where he was superintendent of the English congregation, but re- turned at the accession of Elizabeth, and was elected to the Bishopric of Chichester, December 18, 1559. He continued to exercise his preaching powers both at Paul's Cross and in the royal chapel, sub- scribed the Articles in 1563, and translated four of the Apocryphal books in the Bishops' Bible. He 1 H. Machyn's "Diary" (published by Camden Society), p. 75. 10 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. also retained his old hatred of Romanism, and we find him expressing to the Government 1 his intention of depriving two " popish " prebendaries of Chichester, and his readiness to repress obstinate adversaries, especially " Papists," and, as a means to that end, desired preachers to be placed in his diocese. 2 He died at Chichester, August 13, 1568, and left a widow with two sons and five daughters, all of whose husbands became bishops. The Reformation is deeply indebted to Barlow as one of the chief agents who effected it, and the great services he thereby rendered religion incline us to condone his recantations, false though they were, as we do those of Cranmer and Jewel. His Protestan- tism was thorough, though somewhat too fiery and more outspoken, perhaps, than was fitting. It sprung from a sincere belief in the great doctrines of the Gospel, and was evidenced by a constant endeavour to promote the spread of knowledge, secular as well as religious. His iconoclasms and Church spoliations may shock us, but in such respects the spirit of the age was corrupt and debasing, and his abhorrence of Romanism and all connected with it might well pro- duce a reaction. For the temper of the age, in its rebound from Popery, was not favourable to veneration of any kind, and Barlow was infected by it. Harington tells us that "he was a man no less godly than learned," 3 and there seems no reason, all due allowances being made, for rejecting his testi- mony. 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xxv. n, about 1561. * Cecil MSS. : Hatfield. Date of letter, October 27, 1564. 3 " Briefe View," p. 106. ANTHONY KITCHIN. II ANTHONY KITCHIN. BISHOP OF LLANDAFF, 1545. BISHOP KITCHIN, otherwise Dunstan, was educated at Gloucester Hall, now Worcester College, Oxford, a house of the Benedictines, where he graduated B.D. in 1525. At first a monk of Westminster, he became subsequently Prior of Gloucester Hall, and in 1530, Abbot of Eynsham, Oxfordshire, in which capacity he signed in Convocation the Articles of I536. 1 Two years before, he had subscribed his belief in the king's ecclesiastical supremacy, together with his prior, sub-prior, and thirteen monks ; and in 1538 he surrendered his Abbey of Eynsham, with all its lands and possessions, being compensated by a pension of two hundred marks 2 and a royal chaplaincy. In 1 545 he became Bishop of Llandaff, and was con- secrated at Westminster on May 3. In his oath of allegiance he renounced the pope, expressing his thanks, in what seems to have been the usual form, that the "vail of darkness had been removed from his eyes." 8 We are told 4 that he was " made of an idle abbot, a busie bishop ; " but history has recorded none of his activity, except that which he displayed in the Marian burnings and the extensive spoliations of his see. He was in the commission for the trial of Bishop Hooper, and tried and sentenced Rawlins White, a fisherman of Cardiff, " an old, honest, poor man," who had sent his son to school that he 1 Fuller's "Church History," ed. Brewer, iii. pp. 159, note. 2 The value of a mark is 13*. qd. 3 Dean Lamb's " History of the Articles," p. 10, note. * " Briefe View," p. 164. 12 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. might learn to read the Bible to him, for which he was burnt at Cardiff, in the month of March, I555. 1 On the re-establishment of Protestantism under Elizabeth, Kitchin at first took his stand with the rest of the Roman Catholic bishops in voting against the chief Protestant measures, passed by Parliament in the first year of her reign, as the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity, and that for the restitu- tion and annexation of firstfruits to the Crown. When, however, the Bill which gave power to the queen to exchange the bishops' lands for impropria- tions was passed, he absented himself. 2 Then came the crucial question as to taking the oath of allegiance or suffering the penalty of deprivation and possible imprisonment. He had solemnly renounced the pope under Henry and Edward, and as solemnly done the contrary under Mary ; what was he to do now that Elizabeth was on the throne, and with every prospect of being there a great many years? Was he once more to " testifie and declare in his conscience " that the pope had no authority in this realm of England, and even thank God, in the prescribed phrase, for having removed the " vail of darkness " from his mental vision ? This was the question which now agitated the breast of Bishop Kitchin. The ambas- sador of Philip of Spain, Alvarez de Quadra, Bishop of Aquila, did his best to screw up the courage of the perplexed prelate to refusal point, and thus reported to his royal master the result of his interview : " The Bishop of Llandaff, who is an old, greedy, and little- learned man, is wavering. I went to visit and comfort him in the best way I could, but this was not sufficient to support him." 3 When the time arrived for taking the oath, Kitchin 1 Burnet's "History of the Reformation," ed. Pocock, ii. p. 494. 2 Strype's "Annals," I. i. pp. 83-87. * Documents at Simancas. Here translated from the original Spanish quoted in Froude's, " History of England," vol. vii. p. 91, n. JOHN SCORY. 13 was still undecided what course to take, and the queen gave him further time, but on the condition of his declaring that his declining to take the oath pro- ceeded from no desire to oppose either her will or her ecclesiastical supremacy. That declaration, accord- ingly, he made and subscribed on July 18, 1559, in which he also declared that he would make all under his jurisdiction conform to the Protestant religion, and take the oath required by the Statute, 1 and, as he lived for several years more, he probably took it himself. Harrington tells us that the price he paid for the retention of his see was having to alienate its possessions. After a fashion he managed his diocese ; at any rate, we meet with his certificate to the Government respecting its condition. 2 He died in 1563, about October 31. JOHN SCORY. -1585. BISHOP OF ROCHESTER, 1551; CHICHESTER, 1552; HEREFORD, 1559. BISHOP ScORY was, according to his own statement, a native of Norfolk, and was educated at Cambridge, where he was a Dominican friar, and became B.D. in 1539, having been a student of theology for nine years. He sided with the king in his dissolution of the religious houses, and in 1538 joined in the sur- render of his own ; and, as might be expected, was a supporter of the Reformation. In 1541, Archbishop Cranmer made him one of the six preachers in Can- terbury Cathedral, where he fulminated against 1 His declaration is given in Dean Lamb's " Historical Account of the Thirty-nine Articles," p. II. 2 Harleian MSS., 595 (2). 14 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. several prominent doctrines of the Church of Rome, especially against sacerdotalism, prayers in an un- known language, the intercession of saints, and Transubstantiation. He now became an eminent preacher, and Bishop Ridley, whose examining chaplain he was, appointed him to preach at Paul's Cross. Two of his sermons have become historical. The first was in 1550, at the burning of Joan Butcher in Smithfield, for denying our Lord's incarnation. He denounced her heresies, but she replied by telling him that he "lied like a knave," and bade him "go home and read his Bible." The other was delivered before Edward VI. in Lent of the following year, when he drew his attention to the want of ecclesiastical discipline then prevalent, and the unbridled licence of life and doctrine that resulted from it. He also dwelt on the hardships in- flicted on the poor by the new landlords, the grasping and greedy courtiers, who had succeeded the easy- going and kindly monks, and who, by the enclosure of commons and the conversion of arable into pasture land, had thrown numbers out of employment, and produced a state of semi-starvation in the rural districts. The miserable condition of the poor labourers was keenly felt by him, and, on his becom- ing a bishop, he wrote a letter to the young king, in which he enforced the same topics that he had done in his sermon. Where there had been forty or fifty ploughs at work, there were then, he told him, but ten, the country population had diminished by more than a half, and they were " pined and famend by the great scarcetie and derthe of all kind of vitalles." Corn had to be imported from France, for the country did not produce enough for its own wants. 1 He was consecrated Bishop of Rochester on August 30, 1551. His consecration, has, however, been denied on the same grounds and from the same 1 Petyt MSS., fol. 538, vol. xlvii. JOHN SCORY. 15 motive as that of Bishop Barlow. In his oath of allegiance, he renounced the pope, "haveing," as he testified, " the Vale of Darknesse clearly taken away." l After eight months' tenure of that see, he was trans- lated to Chichester, and received the royal authority to licence preachers for his diocese, and also to inhibit others from preaching. 2 The accession of Mary terminated his episcopate, when, to save himself from the stake, he renounced Protestantism and his wife also, though it is to be hoped not after the fashion of one Cheken, parson of St. Nicholas, Cole Abbey, who, as a diarist of the time informs us, " sold ys wyff to a bowcher." 3 For a year Scory remained unmolested, but, feeling that he was still in peril, he applied to be readmitted to the Roman Church, and restored to the exercise of his ministry therein. Accordingly, some time in the month of July, 1554, he appeared before Bishop Bonner, lamenting, with tears and groans, 4 his past declensions. Bonner absolved him and licensed him to perform ecclesiastical functions in the Diocese of London. 5 But Scory's professed desire to minister in the Church was only a feint to throw dust in the eyes of his enemies. For, soon afterwards, he fled beyond the sea, and from his place of safety wrote a letter to the Protestants imprisoned in England, exhorting them to suffer cheerfully whatever might befall them. The preface had a prayer that God would "confounde all the proude, beastly, and develishe enterprises of Antichristes garde, that doo imagine nothing els but y e subversion of the Gospell of Christ, and contynually 1 State Papers, Edward VI., vol. xiii. 27. Date, June 17, 1551. 2 Calendar State Papers, Edward VI., vol. xiv. 40. 3 H. Machyn's "Diary " (published by Camden Society), p. 48. 4 Bonner's certificate of absolution mentions him as " Valde psenitentem et deplorantem." 5 Burnet's " History of the Reformation," ed. Pocock, vol. ii. pp. 442, 443 ; v. 389, 390. 1 6 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. thyrste for the blood of all true Christians." 1 He also beguiled the tedium of his exile by translating Cyprian's "Sermon on Mortality," published in 1556, the topic of which is the necessity of keeping the Christian faith, even though called on to suffer martyrdom for it. The subject was a noble one, and suited the times, but it would have come with greater effect from another pen. Mary dead, and Elizabeth on the throne, Scory returned to England, full of zeal against the Romanists, which he vented in a sermon he preached before the queen on February 12, 1559, in which, as a Roman Catholic gentleman who was present wrote to the Mantuan ambassador at Brussels, he " said so much evil of the pope, of the bishops, of the prelates, of the regulars, of the Church, of the Mass," and of the Romish faith generally, that he was " scandalized," promising never to go there again. 2 As an approved foe of Rome, he was appointed to select the Protestant divines for the Westminster conference with the Roman Catholic bishops and clergy. His services condoned his apostasy, and on July 15, 1559, he was elected to the Bishopric of Hereford. He joined the other bishops-elect in their petition to the queen not to deprive the sees of their estates. She refused, and stripped his own of seven- teen manors, amounting in all to 594 per annum. 3 He assisted in the consecration of Archbishop Parker, and preached the sermon on the words of St. Peter, " The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ." In what sense, however, he was a witness, except at a safe distance, is not very evident. From the beginning to the end of it his episcopate at Hereford was a scene of trouble, grief, and scandal. 1 " An Epistle written by John Scory," anno 1555. - Calendar State Papers, Venetian Series, 1558-9. February 13. 3 Chancery Seals, Record Office. JOHN SCORY. 17 His income was but 400 a year, so at least he wrote to Cecil, 1 and yet it was estimated for firstfruits and tenths at 1200. His diocese was a stronghold of Romanism ; the gentry opposed him, and the clergy defied him, especially those of his own cathedral, which he described as being " a very nurserye of blasphemy, whoredom, pryde, superstition, and ignor- ance." He endeavoured to visit them, but they claimed to be exempt from his jurisdiction, and also resisted the commission issued for that purpose by the Archbishop of Canterbury on the I4th of July, I56i. 2 Unable to do anything in the way of religious re- formation, Bishop Scory devoted himself to the more congenial task of amassing a fortune, nor was he at all particular as to the means he adopted. A remarkable letter exists written to the queen by Mr. Richard May, a clothier of Worcester, who quaintly appends to his signature the words " who gave unto yo r Maiestie the finest clothe in the world," as though to ensure favourable attention to his letter. That letter " lamentablie " showed that the bishop's wife had received from him " Twoo hundreth markes lacking a noble in pawne," promising "contentment of a benefice which should be in the queen's gift," but that he had neither received the benefice nor had his money restored to him, though the bishop was "thought" to be worth "Twentie Thousande poundes." 3 What the queen said to the man who had given her " the finest clothe in the world " has not been told us, but what she said, or rather wrote, a few years afterwards to the bishop for felling timber on the episcopal estates is on record ; for in one of her explicit letters she threatened him with deprivation 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xvii. 32. 2 " Athense Cantabrigienses," vol. i. p. 512. State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cvii. 34. Endorsed February 19, 1 8 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. if he cut down any more. 1 Scory denied the charge, but practically admitted its truth by promising to be more careful for the future. He would appear to have been articled against in the Star Chamber by Sir Henry Sidney, President of the Marches of Wales, for extortion and simony, but that the charges were dropped not through any innocence of the bishop, but from his having bribed an influential lady. 2 However this may have been, his administration of patronage was extremely scandalous. He gave three sinecure prebends of the collegiate church of Bromyard to his wife, 8 and collated his son Sylvanus Scory to a prebend in his own cathedral, 4 though he was a man of worthless character, and afterwards became, even if he was not then, a Roman Catholic. The sinecures which he gave to Mrs. Scory were each worth 21 a year, a good income in those days, and would have enabled him to employ three preachers, if he had been as anxious for the honour of God and for the spread of the gospel as he professed to be. His appointment of his worthless son was a significant commentary on the motive which, as he pretended, led him to desire a commission for the visitation of his cathedral, that " its light may lighten the darkness of the rest." In 15/5, he applied for the vacant Bishopric of Norwich. " Have pitey on my graie heade," he wrote to Burghley in asking for it, " that it maie be brought to the grave with moare quiet than hytherto it hath had." 5 As the only reasons -that he could give in support of his application were that the diocese of Hereford was a "purgatory," and that of Norwich State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cxxxvii. 72. Date, April, 1580. 11 Briefe View," p. 132 j " Athense Cantabrigienses." State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xcviii. 35. " Le Neve's Fasti," ed. Hardy. Lansdowne MSS., 20 (63). JOHN SCORY. 19 was his "native county," it was not very probable that his request would be granted. Besides, he was then under a cloud of very grave charges, which Burghley was disposed to credit. At the end of his life he became incapable of managing his diocese, and Archbishop Whitgift commissioned his chancellor to exercise episcopal jurisdiction. 1 Bishop Scory died at his house at Whitbourne on June 26, 1585. His life had been a scene of turmoil, and he was not allowed even to die in peace ; for his son Sylvanus, to whom he had given the prebend, entered the house with a number of armed retainers, and turning his mother out of the room where her husband lay dying, took possession of it. 2 It was said that the bishop in his last moments was reconciled to the Roman Catholic Church. He died very rich and left many charitable be- quests. 3 He had also obtained new statutes for the cathedral, one of which provided for the founding of a free school. Whatever may have been the faults of Bishop Scory he must be credited with a sincere and, for the times in which he lived, an enlightened adhesion to Protestant truth, and also with considerable zeal in propagating it. Nor must his sympathy with the miserable state of the poor, evidenced as it was by his sermons and his bequests, be lost sight of in our endeavour to form an estimate of his character. 1 " Athense Cantabrigienses," i. p. 513. 2 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. clxxx. I and 249. 3 They are enumerated in the "Athense." 20 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. HUGH CURWEN. 1507-1568. ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN, 1555 ; BISHOP OF OXFORD, 1567. ARCHBISHOP CURWEN is said l to have been born at High Knipe, near Bampton, Westmoreland, and to have been descended from an ancient family in that county. In one of his own letters, dated April 3, 1564, he mentions himself as being then "three yeares under th' age of threescore." 2 This fixes his birth-year to 1507, and so disposes of the statement made elsewhere 3 that he took his B.C.L. degree at Cambridge in 1510. The place of his education cannot, in point of fact, be determined. He was chaplain to Henry VIII., and in Lent, 1533, is stated to have preached the sermon in favour of Transubstantiation and against John Frith, then a prisoner in the Tower, for denying it, which presently led to his being burnt at Smithfield. In the same year he is further said 4 to have defended the king's marriage with Anna Boleyn against Peto, afterwards the celebrated cardinal. If this be so, as he was then but twenty-six, he must have been a polemical prodigy. During a vacancy in the see of Hereford, in 1538, he was made keeper of its spiritualities, and in his Injunctions ordered the free use of the Scriptures in English throughout the 1 Atkinson's " Worthies of Westmoreland," i. 81, and ii. 149. 2 State Papers, Ireland, x. 44: Archbishop Curwen to Sir W. Cecil. " Athenae Cantabrigienses," vol. i. p. 280; "National Dictionary of Biography." 4 A Dr. Richard Curwen, who died in 1542, was Archdeacon of Oxford in 1536. There may have been some confusion between him and his namesake. HUGH CURWEN. 21 diocese, the king having commanded it to be publicly- read in churches. In 1540 he was sent to Calais on a commission of religious inquiry, which resulted in a vehement persecution of the Protestants, with which a sermon he preached there on " Charity " had probably something to do. He was well beneficed with the Rectory of Great Mongeham, Kent, a prebend of Hereford, and also its deanery, which he received in 1541. In the reign of King Edward, Curwen was a staunch Protestant, but ceased to be one in that of Queen Mary, who made him Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. He was consecrated at London House on September 8, 1555, by Bonner and two other bishops, 1 and went to Ireland the following month, arriving in Dublin on October 20. He lost no time in displaying his zeal for Romanism, and held a pro- vincial synod, at which he enacted many religious ceremonies, and set up an image of the Saviour in St. Patrick's Cathedral. In 1557 he was made one of the Lord Justices of Ireland. Queen Elizabeth confirmed him in his office of Chancellor on December 14, 1558, and in the arch- bishopric too, and Curwen showed his gratitude, not to say his re-conversion to Protestantism, by pro- moting the passing of the Act of Uniformity in the Irish Parliament of the following year, and also by removing from his cathedral the crucifix which he had formerly set up. He also preached so vigorously against the Roman Mass, that a hundred of his hearers became Protestants. He was, however, very anxious to quit Ireland, and in 1560 made application to the queen through the Earl of Sussex 2 for a bishopric which the earl spells as that of " Hochthford," by which he probably 1 Bishop Stubbs' " Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum," p. 81. 2 State Papers, Elizabeth, Ireland, vol. ii. 31. Date of letter, November 2, 1560. 22 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. meant Oxford. The ground of the recommendation was, that " of his cote," he had " surlyest stood to the Crowne ether in Ingland or Irland." l The recom- mendation, however, was for some years neglected, till, in consequence of his persistent demand for removal, the queen determined to release him from his double office on a pension of 200 a year, 2 for there were grave reasons against his receiving an English bishopric. But Curwen stuck out for transla- tion, since to be removed merely on a pension would give colour to the reports against his character, which he declared to be slanders. Yet Loftus, Archbishop of Armagh, affirmed 3 that in his Court of Chancery he would " sweare terriblye," and that his immoralities were too gross to be named. 4 He further testified that he did no good either in preaching or reforming his diocese, and gave his livings either to open enemies of the gospel or to those who "for wante of lernynge" were useless. The Bishop of Meath, also an excellent prelate, catalogued him with the rest of his cathedral clergy as " dume dogges " and " living enemies to the truth." 5 One cause of the displeasure of these two prelates was, the opposition made by Curwen to their scheme of using the revenues of St. Patrick's to found a University at Dublin. His objections were partly political and partly religious. 6 Archbishop Loftus was very anxious for Curwen's removal. " Call 1 In the " Shirley Letters," p. 94, " Hochthford " is erroneously printed " harthford," which the editor in a bracket has put [Hereford?]; but as Scory had been elected to that see on July 15, 1559, and still held it, it is hardly possible that Curwen could have applied for it. The See of Oxford, however, was vacant, and had been so since December 4, 1557. " Shirley Letters," p. 125. August 7, 1563. Ibid., p, 125. Strype's "Life of Parker," vol. i. p. 221. "Shirley Letters," p. 162. Ibid., pp. 151-153 : Archbishop Curwen to Earl of Pembroke, June 21, 1564. HUGH CURWEN. 23 home then the old unprofitable workman," were the words in which he urged it upon Cecil. 1 At last it was accomplished by his translation to the Bishopric of Oxford in 1567, the royal assent being given on October 8. He sailed from Ireland on the nth of August in that year, " leavinge," said his successor in the chancellorship, " a good reporte behynde him." 2 But this testimony refers only to his political conduct. His translation, indeed, not to mention his moral and spiritual unfitness, was a scandalous job ; for at the time of his appointment he was physically incompetent, being " a verie weake and impotent man through the palzey." It was, therefore, necessary that a suffragan should be appointed to perform his episcopal functions, and Curwen forwarded to the Government the names of two divines from whom the queen should select one. They added four more, and sent the list to Archbishop Parker for his opinion. He disapproved of them all the nominees of the Government (three of them at least) because they had " no such livelihood of their own to be put to such travail," but of Bishop Curwen's nominees as fearing that they were of " such inclina- tion," that they neither would "serve God in good religion, nor do their duty to the prince." 3 A cor- roboration, this, of the statement of Archbishop Loftus as to his shameful carelessness of the cha- racters and fitness of those whom he collated to benefices. His position as Bishop of Oxford was not only scandalous, but wretched, for his income, according to his own statement, was but " five hundreth mkes yearely," and even that pittance was subject to such 1 "Shirley Letters," p. 201. 2 State Papers, Elizabeth, Ireland, vol. xxi. 89 : Dr. Weston to Sir W. Cecil, August 22, 1567. 3 "Parker Correspondence," p. 306 : Archbishop Parker to Sir W. Cecil, October 5, 1567. 24 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. outgoings in the shape of pensions, subsidies and tenths, that he found himself without any income at all, 1 and, as he pathetically put it, was left to starve in his old age. He died at Swinbrooke, near Burford, in October, 1568, and was buried in the parish church. He was never married, but acted the part of a father to his nephews, one of whom, Richard Bancroft, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, he educated at Cambridge at his own expense. Though as an ecclesiastic Bishop Curwen deserves severe censure, yet as a statesman and lawyer he is not undeserving of praise ; his successor in the chancellorship commended him, and one Matthew King wrote of him to Cecil as being " a most upright judge." 2 MATTHEW PARKER. 1504-1575- ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, 1559. ARCHBISHOP PARKER was a native of the city of Norwich, where he was born on August, 6, 1504. His father was a worsted-weaver, but on his mother's side he was connected with the best families of Norfolk, and through the Careys could claim affinity with Queen Elizabeth herself. His early education was entrusted to the clergy, who taught him reading, writing, grammar, and singing. At the age of twelve he lost his father, but his mother con- tinued the expense of his education, and sent him to Cambridge, where he entered at Corpus College, then called St. Benet's, on September 8, 1521. In 1523 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xlvi. 39. Date, February, 1567-8. 2 Ibid., Ireland, vol. ii. 7. Date, May 7, 1562. MATTHEW PARKER. 25 he was elected Bible clerk ; graduated B.A. in 1525 ; was ordained deacon and priest in 1527, receiving his fellowship in the same year. From this time he gave himself to the study of theology, especially of the Scriptures, the Fathers, and ecclesiastical history, in which, after six years, labour, he became profoundly versed. Thus qualified for the ministry, he entered on one of its chief functions, preaching his first sermon at Grantchester near Cambridge on Advent Sunday, 1533. Cardinal Wolsey attempted to secure him for his new college of Christ Church, Oxford ; but Parker aimed at a more active life than such a restricted sphere could afford. His abilities as a preacher were soon recog- nised, and in 1535 he was sent for to Court by Queen Anna Boleyn, who made him her chaplain and gave him the Deanery of Stoke-by-Clare, Suffolk. This promotion, however, was not to be wholly ascribed to his theological talents, but also to his having sided with the king in his divorce from Catherine of Arragon. In his new charge he laboured with commendable zeal for the spiritual welfare of his flock, whom he discovered to be devoid of religious knowledge, and also extremely superstitious. He founded a grammar school, established lectures in the college, and with great boldness preached against errors of faith and worship. In a sermon on Easter Day he inveighed against their pomps and processions, telling them to "fix their hearts on Christ, and make a true conversion to God their chief aim." The holiness accruing from things and places even from the material cross itself came in for his denunciation, and he told his people that the only source of real holiness was the indwelling of the Spirit in the soul. For these liberal sentiments he was accused of heresy before the lord chancellor, Audley, but the charge was dismissed with contempt. In 1538 he was appointed chaplain to the king, and 26 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. took his degree of doctor of divinity. Within a few years preferments flowed in in an almost continuous stream, and he became Prebendary of Ely (1541), Rector of Ashen, Essex (1542); Master of Corpus (1544), Rector of Burlingham, and Rector of Land- beach (1545). His appointment to the mastership was by royal mandate. When holding that position, and being at the same time vice-chancellor, he was placed on a royal commission to survey the estates of the colleges at Cambridge and make a report. The proceeding was ominous of impending spoliation, but the king was so much struck with the smallness of the revenues compared with the number of the recipients as shown in the report, that he remarked that it would be "a pity to alter the lands to make them worse." On that hint Parker spoke, and going down on his knees with the other fellow-commissioners implored his Majesty to continue to them their possessions, 1 a request which was graciously granted. He notes in his diary with much complacency the long faces of the courtiers " gaping wolves," as he calls them at this unexpected declaration of their royal master which baulked them of their prey. Within a little more than a year after this inter- view Henry VIII. died at Westminster, January 28, 1 547, but the work of Church-robbery was carried on under his successor, and Parker was one of its first victims, being despoiled of his Deanery of Stoke. The college was dissolved, and its lands and possessions conveyed to the king's ttttor, Sir John Cheke, Parker being compensated by a pension of 40. On the question of alienation of Church lands, he thought that they might lawfully be re-distributed by Christian princes, but only for religious purposes. The Statute of Six Articles, which had made the marriage of clerics felony, being now repealed, Parker - 1 By a recent Act of Parliament the king was empowered to deal with such property as he thought fit. MATTHEW PARKER. 2/ immediately (June 24, 1547) married; the object of his choice was Margaret Harlestone, descended from an ancient Norfolk family, who proved a pattern of conjugal excellence. During that reign he enjoyed the confidence of the Government, he was a frequent preacher at the Cross and the Court, and was also placed on several com- missions, notably one for the suppression of Ana- baptists and another for the reformation of ecclesiastical laws. He is said also to have been consulted in the revision of King Edward's first Prayer-book (1549), and to have approved of it, though not one of the commissioners. Its appearance produced intense excitement in many parts of England, for the people, already exasperated by the conduct of the land- grabbing courtiers, who, by turning arable land into pasture, had thrown thousands out of employment, were easily led to believe that a new religion was being forced upon them, because for the first time the Mass was now to be said in English. This conviction, added to agrarian discontent, afforded the enemies of the Government an opportunity to stir up the rustic population to open rebellion, of which they were not slow to avail themselves. In Parker's native county this feeling was especially strong, and Kett, a tanner of Norfolk, at the head of 20,000 men, seized Norwich, and demanded agrarian reform and the restoration of the Roman Catholic religion. Parker was at that time at Norwich, whence he immediately hastened to the rebels' camp, where at the risk of his life he preached to them on the folly and wickedness of their revolt, and did the same also in several of the city churches. The rising was soon suppressed and its leader executed. On June 8, 1552, he was nominated to the Deanery of Lincoln, and also received a prebend in that cathedral, both appointments being in the gift of the Crown. Whether he sympathized with the 28 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. attempt to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne at the death of Edward VI. (July 6, 1553) is a matter of conjecture. He certainly supped, as also did other members of the University, with the Duke of Northumberland when he visited Cambridge to promote her cause ; but, as his Grace was Chancellor of the University, this may be regarded as only a necessary act of courtesy. It has also been supposed that his mention of a fall from his horse when flying by night from his enemies 1 refers to his escape from the officers of justice sent to apprehend him for his support of that cause ; but others, 2 and with more probability, assign a much later date to his accident. Parker, as a married priest, was deprived of all his benefices, in consequence of a royal proclamation (March 4, 1554), but he was allowed to nominate a successor, both to his Mastership of Corpus and his Rectory of Landbeach an exceptional lenity which hardly fits in with any treasonable advocacy of the claims of Lady Jane Grey. During the reign of Mary he lived with his wife and two children in strict retirement, and occupied with his studies, but was the object of untiring vigilance on the part of his enemies. During this interval he wrote and published two treatises, the one his " Defence of Priest's Marriages," and the other a version of the Psalter in English metre. The accession of Elizabeth on November 17, 1558, brought him, though sorely against his will, into the full glare and stir of public life. The Archbishopric of Canterbury was vacant through the decease of Cardinal Pole, and it was obvious to every one but Parker himself that he was the fittest man for the post. His piety and learning ; his moderation and great practical common sense ; his decided, yet not excessive, Protestantism ; his 1 Dean Hook, "Lives of Archbishops of Canterbury," vol. ix. p. 114. 2 Strype's " Life of Parker," vol. i. p. 67, gives 1551 as the date. MATTHEW PARKER. 29 experience in so many and varied spheres of labour ; his past services and sufferings for religion, together with the personal regard of the queen, to whose care he had been specially commended by her mother, all indicated him as the only person who could be reasonably thought of for the Primacy. Indeed, if it were possible to steer the vessel of the Church in safety between the Scylla of Romanism and the Charybdis of Puritanism, conciliating all but the extremists of either party, he was without question the man most likely to accomplish so difficult a task. He himself, in a letter to his old college friend the Lord Keeper Bacon, described the sort of man required for such a post at so critical a juncture, 1 and he was answered that he had but drawn his own portrait. Accordingly, a few weeks after Elizabeth's acces- sion, Bacon wrote to Parker, then probably at Cambridge, asking him to come to London on business, which he hoped would turn to his advan- tage. This clearly meant high ecclesiastical prefer- ment, for which Parker, as he said, and probably with truth, had no desire. His utmost ambition, he wrote back, would be gratified with the Mastership of Corpus, though worth but twenty nobles a year. A few days afterwards he received through Cecil a royal command for his immediate attendance at Court, as it was the queen's intention to employ him in her service. He came, and was told that he was to be Archbishop of Canterbury. 2 The prospect filled him with dismay, and he declared that he would rather go to prison than accept an office the duties of which he was incom- petent to perform. The matter remained in abey- ance till the middle of May, when the queen nominated him to the vacant see. Then Parker 1 " Parker Correspondence :" March I, 1559. 2 Nominated May 17, 1559. 3O LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. addressed a long letter to her Majesty, in which he implored her to excuse his declining the Arch- bishopric, by reason of his unfitness for so great a place. He had formerly told the Lord Keeper, in his own quaint phrase, that his " decayed voice " and " a natural viciosity of overmuch shame-fastness," dis- qualified him for any spiritual charge higher than the pastorate of some rustic flock, and he now declared to her Majesty that his poverty, weakness of health, and want of gifts of every sort made him quite unfit to " do any meet service." 1 His letter produced no result, except displeasure on the part of the queen, for she retained her purpose of making him Primate. A few months before, the assistance of Parker had been required for the revision of the new Liturgy to be submitted to Parliament, and a committee was appointed for that purpose, the members of which were, besides himself, Bill, May, Whitehead, Cox, Grindal, Sandys, and Pilkington, with Sir Thomas Smith, a layman, for secretary. Owing to sickness, Parker was not often present at their deliberations, but his place was supplied by Guest, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury. 2 The commissioners were all strong anti-Romanists, and, with one or two excep- tions, Calvinists. The first question that arose was which of the two Prayer-books of Edward VI. the first of 1 549, or the second of 1552 should be selected as the one to be revised. The former was the more ritualistic. In the Communion Service were the terms "mass" and " altar," the wearing the cope, the mixed chalice, the wafer bread, the invocation of the Holy Ghost on the elements and the sign of the cross at their consecration ; while at baptism the minister prayed for the exorcism of the unclean spirit from the infant, blessed the water with the sign of the cross, and put 1 " Parker Correspondence," pp. 50, 53, 57, 68, 69. 2 Strype's "Annals,"/^/ also "Life of Bishop Guest," p. 128. MATTHEW PARKER. 31 the chrisom, 1 or white robe, on the newly-baptized child. The sign of the cross was also used at Confirmation. In the latter Prayer-book (1552) all these practices were omitted, on which account, as one must suppose, it was chosen by the revisers. It was adopted almost in its entirety, and the alterations were so few and inconsiderable that their work could scarcely be termed a revision, though to conciliate the Roman Catholics they omitted from the Litany the clause praying for deliverance from the pope and all his detestable enormities, which had been in both the Edwardian Prayer-books. This done, they submitted the book to the queen for her approval, who, however, was so dissatisfied with the ceremonial omissions, that she ordered Cecil to forward to them a paper of ten questions, suggest- ing the restoration of the ritual, especially of the cope at the celebration of the Communion. To this Guest, as the chief reviser, drew up in the name of his colleagues, a reply in which were fully stated the reasons for the omissions. 2 But the queen, determined to have her own way, caused a proviso to be inserted in the Act of Uniformity, which enacted " that such Ornaments of the Church and of the Ministers thereof shall be retained, and be used, as were in this Church of England, by Authority of Parliament in the second year of the reign of King Edward the Sixth, until other Order shall be therein taken by the Authority of the Queen's Majesty, with the Advice of her Commissioners appointed and autho- rized under the Great Seal of England for Causes Ecclesiastical, or of the Metropolitan of this Realm." This brief, but weighty, proviso enabled Elizabeth to rule the Church much as she chose, for of course the concurrence of the Archbishop of Canterbury 1 The chrisom was to be returned to the minister by the mother of the child when she came to be churched. 2 See " Life of Bishop Guest," p. 128. 32 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. was a matter to be assumed. Such, at any rate, was her opinion of the power it gave her, and she deemed it so essential that she afterwards told Archbishop Parker that but for its insertion she would never have given her consent to the Prayer-book. 1 By the authority which she conceived this proviso vested in her, she ruled the Church despotically, and made it extend to matters which its framers never dreamt of, such as regulating clerical marriages and suppressing meetings assembled for religious edifica- tion. It formed the " Ornaments rubric " 2 which mightily puzzled the revisers as to what was meant by the ornaments being retained. Sandys, speaking the sense of the revisers, wrote to Parker that their " gloss " was that they were " not to be forced to use them," but that others should not "convey them away." 3 Though this gloss is itself obscure, yet it makes it obvious that the rubric could hardly have been the work of the revisers. 4 We have no reason for supposing that in the question of ritual Parker differed from the other members of the committee. The Prayer-book passed in the House of Commons on the 23rd of April, and the Lords on the 28th, 1559, and was used for the first time on the 24th of the following June. It was not, however, submitted to Convocation till the reign of Charles the Second. The Act of Uniformity which legalised the Prayer- book provided for the punishment of such clergy as neglected to use it, as well as of those who spoke against it, or who, without lawful cause, neglected to attend divine service at the parish church. The penalties varied from imprisonment for life to a 1 " Parker Correspondence," p. 375. 2 Ornaments in Liddell v. IVesterton, were decided to include whatever was required for the performance of divine service. 3 " Parker Correspondence," p. 65. 1 " Notes on the Liturgy," by Lord Selborne, pp. 9-12. (London : 1878.) MATTHEW PARKER. 33 shilling fine. To give the greater effect to these pro- visoes, as well as those of the Act of Supremacy, a new tribunal was created, the celebrated Court of High Commission, which was established by a special clause 1 in that Act. The Commission was issued by royal warrant under the Great Seal, July 19, 1559. The existence of this Court depended on the will of the queen, who could create, suspend, and renew it at pleasure, and appoint whom she chose to be members of it. Its jurisdiction embraced England and Wales, and the magistrates and legal officers of every shire therein could be required to apprehend those who were to be brought before it, and any one who was suspected of any spiritual or ecclesiastical offence was liable to be convented. 2 The term " ecclesiastical offence" was, according to the construction then put upon it, extremely comprehensive ; and laugh- ing in church, practising witchcraft, or having a forbidden book in one's library, all came within the definition. As this Court was in its constitution irresponsible, so in its procedure it was arbitrary. Persons accused on the merest suspicion were subjected to interroga- tories, and could be compelled to enter on their recognisances to an amount to be fixed by the Court, which also was permitted to get the truth out of witnesses in any way it "might devise," and if un- willing to answer, they could be sent to prison. The first Commission comprised nineteen members, of whom only four were ecclesiastics. Of these Parker was chief, and on him devolved the principal share of its working. The issuing of the famous Injunctions followed. They are supposed to have been drawn up by the revisers of the Liturgy, though in point of fact they were the reproduction of those of Edward VI. Their 1 i Eliz. c. i, s. 18 (1559). 2 The term for being brought before the Court of High Commission. D 34 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. sole basis was the royal authority, 1 but that was sufficient for Parker, who held that during the queen's life her edicts were unquestionable. 2 Their purport, as we learn from the preface, was to suppress super- stition and plant true religion, and they ordered sermons, homilies, catechizing, congregational singing, and reading the Scriptures, and made a clean sweep of shrines, candlesticks, pictures, and stone altars. Yet Elizabeth, as it would seem from her conduct, never meant them to be acted upon, except as far as she might think fit. Parker and the bishops, doubt- less, urged her to issue them ; and the paper drawn up by Bishop Cox, and dealing with the ecclesiastical ornaments to which she was known to be partial, especially the stone altar and the crucifix, probably fixed her decision. In the same direction, also, was the memorial presented to her Majesty at this time by Parker and other bishops against the retention of images in churches. Elizabeth, on occasion, would pose as an enemy to things and practices to which in reality she was partial, and once severely reprehended Dean Nowell for placing on the cushion of her pew in the royal chapel a book containing engravings of saints and angels. Parker followed up the Injunctions by his " Inter- pretations and Considerations," which were rules for the governance of the clergy. All curates were to learn certain texts of Scripture, and repeat them to the archdeacon at his visitation, and also learn a catechism which was thereafter to be drawn up. Bishops, and all holders of benefices, must "go in apparel agreeable," or else, after two monitions, be deprived or sequestered. "Incorrigible Arians and Pelagians" were to be imprisoned "until they be forced to repent of their errors." The cope was to 1 Dr. R. Phillimore's "Ecclesiastical Law," vol. i. p. 909. 2 " Parker Correspondence," p. 351. ^ .MATTHEW PARKER. 35 be worn at the administration of the Lord's Supper, and the surplice at all other times. Private baptism in cases of necessity might be administered by a layman. No one under the age of twelve was to be allowed to receive the communion. 1 The church bell must be tolled "when any Christian body is passing," and all ministers must declare their belief in the principal Articles of Religion. 2 A few months before his consecration, Parker and his fellow bishops, Grindal, Cox, Barlow, and Scory, memorialised the queen with reference to the aliena- tion of Church lands. By an Act passed in her first Parliament, April 6, 1559, she had been empowered, on the avoidance of any archbishopric or bishopric, to take the lands belonging to it, giving in exchange impropriate parsonages and tenths, though by a special proviso, this permission did not extend to the episcopal residence. 3 This Act was very prejudicial to the bishops, its tendency, and probably its object, being to make them odious to the people, and place them in very unpleasant relations to their clergy. The Roman Catholic bishops, Kitchin of Llandaff alone excepted, 4 strenuously opposed the passing of the Bill in the House of Lords as being a legalisation of sacrilege. Nor were their Protestant brethren altogether without scruples on the same point, and the advice of the foreign divines being taken about it, Peter Martyr replied that the bishops need not raise any difficulty about impropriations as the source of their incomes. 5 Parker, however satisfied he may 1 Yet Parker received large fees for the admission of very young children to the Sacrament, a practice which Archbishop Grindal objected to. See his Life, p. 71. 2 Strype's " Annals," I. i. pp. 318-322. 3 "Provided always that this Act shall not extend to give any liberty or authority to your Highness to take from any archbishopric or bishopric the mansion houses commonly used as the habitation or dwelling of any such archbishop or bishop." I Eliz. * See his Life, p. 12. 5 " Zurich Letters," ii. p. 32. 36 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. have been on this point and indeed he had before virtually conceded the principle 1 felt the measure to be inexpedient and unjust ; but the queen disre- garded the request, though he and the other bishops promised to give her a thousand marks a year if she would stay her hand. But the exchange was pro- ceeded with, and the see of Canterbury was deprived of more than half its lands. The consecration of Parker to the Archbishopric of Canterbury took place at Lambeth Chapel on Sunday, December 17, 1559, Bishops Barlow, Scory, Hodgkins, and Coverdale, being the officiating pre- lates. Kitchin, Bishop of Llandaff, stood first in the Commission, but he refused to act, coerced, as it is said, by Bonner. The names of Bishops Salisbury and Bale were also in it, but for some unknown reason they did not officiate. 2 Scory preached the sermon, and Barlow, as senior bishop, put the usual questions ; but each of the prelates pronounced the words of consecration. 3 The Ordinal used on the occasion was that of the Second Prayer-book of King Edward VI., which possessed no statutory authority. 4 On the illegality of this Service-book Bishop Bonner afterwards grounded his assertion that Elizabeth's bishops had not been duly consecrated, and therefore were not bishops at all. 5 The queen, however, had inserted a clause in the commission to supply any deficiencies either in the mode of administering the rite, or in the consecrators that might be required by the ecclesiastical laws, or by the statutes of the kingdom. This is known as the 1 See his Life, ante, p. 26. 2 Patent Rolls, 2 Eliz., pt. 14, December 6; State Papers, Eliz. vii. 56. 3 From a contemporary account, State Papers, Elizabeth, vii. 57. 4 State Papers, Elizabeth, v. 25. *' This booke is not established by plemet [Parliament] authority." Cecil's note on the Ordinal to be used. 5 See " Life of Bishop Home," p. 156. MATTHEW PARKER. 37 " supplentes " clause, and its insertion seems to have been suggested by Parker himself, 1 who foresaw the hostile criticism to which his consecration would be subjected. It was, however, on the part of Elizabeth, a tremendous stretch of the power given her by Parliament to take "other order," since by it she virtually legalised an entire Service-book. After the consecration had been performed, the bishops and their friends were entertained by Parker at the Nag's Head, a tavern in Cheapside, where a Romish priest named Neale, peeping through a chink in the door, saw, as he declared, Bishop Scory place a Bible on the head of Parker and the other bishops elect, which was all the consecration they ever received. This ridiculous story, known as the " Nag's Head Fable," was first printed at Antwerp in 1604, in a book written by a Roman Catholic priest, and gained such credence that Archbishop Abbot employed Francis Mason, one of his chaplains, to refute it He also in 1614 invited four Romish priests to inspect the Register at Lambeth, which records the consecration. They did so, and pronounced it to be a forgery. Probably it was not contemporaneous, but the fact is incontestably proved by many authorities, and the most competent writers among the Roman Catholics have long ceased to doubt it. H. Machyn, a citizen of London mentions it in his diary, 2 and we have also the record of it in Parker's autograph and in a fuller contemporaneous account, already quoted, in the State Papers. Besides which, it must be believed that if Parker had never been consecrated at all, Bonner would not have contented himself with arguing against the technical invalidity of the consecration. The Nag's Head Fable will, however, remain as an instructive and amazing instance of the credulity of people who wish to be deceived. 1 Strype's "Life of Parker," i. p. 108. 2 Published by Camden Society, p. 220. 38 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. Of the prospect before him Parker took but a gloomy view. " On the i/th of December," he enters in his diary, " I was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury. Alas ! alas ! O Lord God, for what times hast Thou kept me ! Now am I come into deep waters, and the flood hath overwhelmed me. O Lord, I am oppressed ; answer for me, and strengthen me with Thy free Spirit." He had before him a gigantic evil in the spiritual destitution of the Church, which demanded immediate remedy. The parishes of the kingdom either had no pastors at all, or such as were wholly incompetent. A comparatively small number, indeed, 1 of the Romish clergy had been deprived of their livings for refusing to conform, but to fill even their places with suitable ministers was no easy task. But it was in those who had conformed that the great peril to Protestantism lay ; for they were either at heart Romish priests and sincere adherents of the pope, or else irreligious, time-serving Vicars of Bray, and were as a body " such," as Bishop Aylmer's chaplain once declared in an ordination sermon, " as were fitter to sport with the timbrel and pipe, than to take in their hands the book of the Lord." 2 Besides this, a con- siderable number of parishes, especially in Wales, had such starvation stipends that no one could accept them, and some half-dozen would be served by the same priest on the Sunday, or more often than not remain unserved. To supply the vacant cures the Protestant bishops ordained such unsuitable persons that Parker addressed a prohibition of such ordinations to Grindal, Bishop of London, 3 and instituted the Order of Readers, as a means of temporarily supplying an urgent want. These were laymen, and their functions 1 Strype's " Annals," I. i. p. 255, estimates the number at 189, but this is probably much below the real number. 2 Strype's "Life of Bishop Aylmer," p. 22. a "Parker Correspondence," p. 120. MATTHEW PARKER. 39 were strictly limited to saying the Litany, reading a homily, catechizing children, and, in cases of necessity, baptizing privately. They were admitted to their office by the licence of the bishop or his chancellor, but without any religious ceremony. At first they were appointed on the sole authority of the Primate, but afterwards, about 1563, the institution was approved of by the bishops, and an order for their regulation was drawn up and signed by the two archbishops and nine of their suffragans. Though the readers were often of humble birth and not very learned, which exposed them to the derision of the Romanists, they at all events were men of piety and repute, and superior to the old priests who could hardly mumble their mass. This step, in the judgment of Archbishop Parker, necessitated another, for the existing homilies were but few in number, and were doctrinal in their nature. He thought, therefore, that the new readers should have a larger stock of discourses which should be of a more practical sort. Accordingly he caused to be prepared a second book containing twenty-one new homilies. 1 Their respective authorship is unknown, though Bishop Cox has been credited with a large share in the work, and the name of Bishop Jewel has also been mentioned as taking a part. To Parker belonged the general superintendence, and his mind is very discernible throughout it. Their teaching was strongly Protestant. About this time he was concerned with two measures of some importance the preparation of a Latin version of the Prayer-book, and an alteration of the calendar with a revised lectionary and his conduct in both these matters was deemed by the Puritans to indicate Popish tendencies. 1 The last of them, that against Disobedience and Wilful Rebellion, does not occur in any edition printed before 1571. Advertisement to Oxford Edition in Clarendon Press. 40 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. The first of these originated in a petition to the queen to allow the book to be used in the college chapels of Oxford and Cambridge, and in those of Eton and Winchester. This she readily granted, and issued her royal letters patent under the Great Seal, April 16, 1560, sanctioning its use not only in these places, but also in the private houses of the clergy at such times as the Liturgy was not read in church. The work, on Parker's recommendation, was assigned to Dr. Walter Haddon, who took for the basis of it the Latin translation of the first Edwardian Prayer-book by Aless, a Scotchman, and Professor of Divinity at Leipzic. The differences between that translation and the original were neither numerous nor important, but such as there were tended to sacerdotalism. Of these one was very remarkable. In the Edwardian Prayer- book which Aless translated, the form of absolution in the Communion service was identical with that in the Elizabethan Prayer-book, and in each the power to forgive sins is attributed to God only, but Aless thought fit to alter it, and speak of the power of forgiving sins as having been conveyed by Christ to the Church, 1 and this inexcusable, if not dishonest, alteration Haddon transferred to his Latin version. There were also added two new prayers one for the commemoration of benefactors, and the other for the celebration of the Lord's Supper at funerals. It also retained the Roman calendar, replete with apocryphal saints and idle fables. To the Puritan all this was but the introduction of popery, sacerdotalism, and superstition. The Latin Prayer-book was termed the " Pope's Dreggs." Most of the colleges in Cambridge declined to use it, and at Corpus, Parker's own college, many of the fellows 1 "Liturgical Services of Queen Elizabeth," (published by the Parker Society), p. 393. " Jesus Christus qui suam potestatem dedit ecclesioe, ut absolvat poenitentes, etc." MATTHEW PARKER. 41 left the chapel as soon as the Master began to read it. Nor did Parker diminish the suspicion entertained of his "papistical inclinations" by his revision of the Lectionary and Calendar, for which in the following year he obtained a royal commission. The calendar of the authorised Prayer-book had no holy-days except such as had special collects provided, but Parker imported into it out of the Latin version seventy-three "black-letter" days, among which, to the horror of the Puritans, were the festivals of "Jesus day," the " Finding of the Cross," and the boiling of St. John in a pot of oil. On Whitsunday, too, they were not a little offended by having to listen to a chapter taken from the Apocrypha. In another important matter the archbishop about this time exercised his authority as Primate. The visitations of the different dioceses had disclosed a wide-spread immorality, especially in the marriages which people contracted, men marrying not only their aunts-in-law, and sisters-in-law, but even their own sisters; bigamy also being not unfrequently practised. To prevent such marriages there was drawn up a table setting forth the prohibited degrees of affinity, and which was called Archbishop Parker's table on account of the large share he had had in its compila- tion. It was printed and published in 1560, and also in 1563 under the title of "An Admonition, etc." It explained the Statute of Elizabeth which forbade marriage between persons within the Levitical degrees, and which is the existing authority on the subject. "Parker's table" was recognised in the canons as "a table set forth by authority," and was commonly printed with the Prayer-book, though not partaking of its statutory force. It seems, however, to have been very little attended to. Marriage with the sister of a deceased wife, which was prohibited by Parker's table, occasioned him 42 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. much anxious thought, and he seems to have been influenced by Bishop Jewel in the decision he made respecting it. Connected with this subject must be considered his conduct with reference to clerical marriages. These had been legalised by statute in the reign of Edward VI., and their offspring legitimated, but under Mary that statute had been repealed, and Elizabeth refused to allow it to be re-enacted. In her In- junctions, however, she allowed the clergy to marry, but only on certain degrading conditions. Leave must be obtained from the bishop of the diocese and l two justices of the peace, of the same shire and next to the parish where the woman resided, who, whatever her age, must, before she could marry a clergyman, have the sanction of her parents, or having none, of two of her nearest relations, and should she be without any, obtain the permission of her master and mistress. The spectacle of the rector of the parish humbly- waiting on a couple of rustic squires 2 to obtain their leave to take to himself a wife was, what Elizabeth probably intended it to be, not a little degrading ; yet, even if the cleric in question had been as learned and pious as Richard Hooker, he must have submitted to this humiliation. The penalties of neglecting this injunction were deprivation and incapacity of holding any spiritual preferment, or performing any ecclesiastical function. The reason for issuing this order was given in the order itself, and was the behaviour of the clergy in contracting menial and improper marriages, to the 1 Parker declared that the word was originally "or," but was changed by a mistake of the printer (" Parker Correspondence," P- 35 2 ). - In the "Losely MSS., ed. Kempe," p. 254, is a letter from one Surrey magistrate to another in favour of the minister of his parish, who was "very desyrous to mary a mayde dwelling in the same parish." It is a highly curious and amusing document. MATTHEW PARKER. 43 great scandal of the ministry. Indeed, one of the chief Romish writers of the time asserts that " almost all of the Protestant clergy married women of tarnished reputation." 1 The charge is so sweeping that it confutes itself, yet the queen chose to believe it on the representations of those whose interest it was to disparage the clergy in her esteem. That they often married women who were in a humble rank of life cannot be denied a circumstance which, as he himself tells us, induced the archbishop to press this injunction on his clergy as that which must be obeyed, and which he declared 2 to be "godly prescribed." On August 9, 1561, the queen issued her man- date for the exclusion from cathedral closes and college precincts of the families of the clergy. Henceforth neither wife, child, nor nursemaid should be seen in those places, dedicated from time im- memorial to religion and learning, since to her prudish spirit the presence of a female was a disturbing element to both, and in the case of the Universities would result in the young men being drawn from their studies, and probably led away into immorality. 3 Every one who should violate this order, whether he were a bishop, dean, canon, or head of a college, forfeited all his ecclesiastical preferments. This despotic order was keenly resented by Parker, and drew from him an earnest remonstrance to the queen, which, however, was wholly unavailing. Soon after it was issued he waited upon her Majesty, whom he found in a state of extreme indignation with the bishops, but especially with those who were married, and she declared, in coarse and violent 1 Sanders* " Anglican Schism," ed. Lewis, p. 379. 2 " Parker Correspondence," p. 352. 3 Petyt MSS., No. 47. Printed also in " Parker Correspondence,"" p. 146. 44 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. language, her regret at ever having made them bishops, and threatened to issue fresh matrimonial injunctions of a severer sort than the preceding one. The primate came in for a full share of the royal vitu- peration, and the vials of the queen's anger were poured so abundantly on his head, that he stood in her presence amazed, ashamed, and speechless. Thus he described the interview to Cecil " I was in an horror to heare such wordes com fro her mylde nature and chrystianly learned conscyence as she spake co'cernyng Godes holy ordinance and instituo of matrimonye, I marveled that our States in that behalfe can not please her highnes w c h we dowt nothing at al to please Godys sacred Maiestye, and trust to stand before Gode's Jugement Seate in a good conscyence therew th , for all the gloriouse shyne of counterfeted chastytie." The royal insults and threats raised a spirit of opposition in the arch- bishop, timid as he was by nature, and he intimated that the queen was going too far, and that sub- missive as the clergy were to her Majesty, that submission had its limits, and must be controlled by a higher principle than loyalty to an earthly sovereign. "I wold be sory," he added, "that the clergye should have cause to shewe disobedyence wh oportet Deo obedire magis quam hominibus. And what Instillers so ev r ther be, ther be Inough of this contempt flocke w ch wil not shrynke to offer ther bloude to the defence of Chryste's verytie, yff yt be eyther openly Impugned or secretly suggilled." 1 He resented the impolicy and cruelty of the injunction, and deeply felt the queen's ungrateful treatment of himself. But his letter was not without effect, and the queen let the matter drop, though her opinions remained unaltered. At this time Parker took measures for the reforma- tion of the clergy, as he had previously indicated in 1 Petyt MSS., 47, folio 374. MATTHEW PARKER. 45 his " Admonition," when he prohibited any minister under the degree of a Master of Arts from preaching, unless licensed by his Ordinary. He now (1561), obtained a special commission from the queen to hold an episcopal synod to discuss Church business prior to the meeting of Convocation. Such a commission was certainly needed, for the clergy, as has already been mentioned, were largely composed of the old ex-Mass-priests of the former reign, and were still, despite their conformity, for the most part Romanists at heart. Nor was there any- thing which expressly required them to be otherwise, for though the new Prayer-book was strongly Protes- tant, yet, now that the petition for deliverance from the pope and his detestable enormities had been removed from the Litany, there was little which a Roman priest, not over squeamish, might not bring himself to comply with. 1 It is true that he would regret many ritualistic omissions and defects, especially in the administration of the Eucharist, but those he could, and frequently did, supply by gestures, breathings, crossings, and genuflections taken from the Missal. The existence of such clergy as these was a peril to the Church, of which Parker was very conscious. To remove them was practically impossible, and his energies, therefore, were directed to the prevention of the evil in the future, and it seemed to him that the best means to this end was the imposition of a doctrinal test. Accordingly, with the assistance of other bishops, he published (April 21, 1561), eleven Articles of Religion to be subscribed by the clergy before institution to a benefice. 2 These articles were 1 It was reported that Pope Pius IV. had expressed his readiness to sanction the English Prayer-book if the queen would accept it from him. 2 These articles were never legally binding on the English Church, though they were made so for that of Ireland, and were its sole formulary of faith till 1615. They are printed in Cardwell's "Docu- mentary Annals." See also Strype's " Life of Parker," vol. i. p. 181. 46 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. strongly anti-papal, and, though issued in the names of both the archbishops, Parker was understood to have taken the chief part in their compilation. In the following year he was much occupied with various diocesan business, among which was a return, in obedience to the queen's writ, of all the hospitals and grammar schools within his diocese. 1 The chief matter, however, which engaged his attention was the preparation of measures to be submitted to the approaching Convocation, and there exists a paper with marginal corrections in his autograph, which represent his opinions on the subjects to be dealt with. They were four in number Articles of Religion, Ritual reform, Codification of laws for the clergy, and the Improvement of the values of small benefices. Yet of all these important measures he only succeeded in carrying the first. Convocation met on January 13, 1563, and was pre- ceded, as usual, by divine service with the Holy Communion in St. Paul's Cathedral, but the golden cross, which for so many centuries had been carried before the Primates of all England, was on this day laid aside, though in all other respects Parker had studiously retained the ancient usages. The first great battle was on the subject of ritual. On February 13 a measure was introduced into the Lower House by the Puritan party, which demanded the abolition of saints' days, the abandon- ment of the eastward position at the celebration of the Communion, the disuse of the sign of the cross at baptism, kneeling at the Lord's Supper to be at the discretion of the Ordinary, the surplice to be the only vestment at all ministrations, and the removal of organs from churches. On the motion to carry it being put, it was lost by one vote. Four of the archbishop's chaplains voted against it, but there 1 " Parker Correspondence," p. 165. MATTHEW PARKER. 47 were many absentees when the division was taken. In the Upper House, Sandys, Bishop of Worcester, moved for a Royal Commission to draw up a scheme of Church discipline, with the same ends in view as the motion in the Lower House. Parker opposed it, and it was lost. The question of ritual was thus postponed, but it was not long before it again came to the front. The great work of Convocation was the drawing up of the Thirty-nine Articles. The queen had granted her permission to Parker to proceed with it, and he summoned Bishops Grindal, Cox, and Guest to assist him. They accordingly did so, and took as the basis of their work the Forty-two Latin Articles of 1553, which had been drawn up chiefly by Cranmer and Ridley. 1 That they were not restored with the Liturgy (1559) has been, and with much reason, ascribed to the interference of the queen, who thought that the Prayer-book held all the doctrine that was necessary. But the Roman Church having at the Council of Trent, which ended its session this year, formulated an elaborate system of doctrines, there seemed a necessity laid on the Anglican Church to reply to them. In the drawing up these Articles Parker's was the controlling mind. The draft of them, when prepared, was submitted to the Upper House on January 1 9> 1 S^3- The bishops, making some slight altera- tions, and striking out three Articles which related to Anabaptism, passed them on the 29th of the same month. The Lower House, however, was by no means so unanimous, and at first passed them by so small a majority that Parker refused to accept it till the number was increased. The Articles as they thus left Convocation pre- sented some not inconsiderable changes, the chief of which were against Romanism. By the omission of 1 Their basis was the " Augsburgh Confession." 48 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. five Articles, the combining of two into one, 1 and the addition of three new ones, they were brought to their present number. The Articles now omitted were those which defined the nature of " Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost," declared that the " Resurrection of the dead had not taken place," that the " Souls of the departed neither perish with their bodies nor remain unconscious," that the " Millenarians were in error," and that "All men are not to be saved at last." On these subjects the Church of England, as represented in Convocation, declined to express any opinion. On the other hand, though they withheld a definition of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, they inserted a new Article touching His Procession and Divinity, and added two respecting the Lord's Supper, the twenty-eighth and the twenty-ninth, both of which were strongly Protestant. 2 The other new Article declared that the Com- munion must be administered in both kinds to the laity. Two alterations remain to be noticed. The third Article now only stated as a fact the going down of Christ into hell, leaving out the previous explana- tion and the quotation from St. Peter in support of it. The twentieth Article, "Of the Authority of the Church," began with a clause that did not exist in the corresponding article of 1553, and which gave the Church " power to decree Rites or Ceremonies, and Authority in controversies of faith." The history of this clause is curious, and has given rise to much discussion. The fact, however, seems to be, that it had been placed there at the instance of the queen and others, but had been removed by Parker and his episcopal coadjutors, though after- wards the queen insisted on its being replaced. The Articles, thus passed by Convocation and 1 Arts. vi. and xix. made up Art. vii. in the present thirty-nine. 2 For the history of these see "Life of Bishop Guest," p. 131. MATTHEW PARKER. 49 authorised by the queen, were required to be subscribed by the clergy, though wanting statutory authority. Little else was done by this Convocation, which broke up on April 14. The Second Book of Homilies, however, was then settled, but the queen, with her customary reluctance to endorse the action of any one else in ecclesiastical matters, and probably not much approving of their contents, delayed her sanction, and they were not published for many months. In the interval Archbishop Parker, anxious to begin the visitation of his diocese, requested x that the queen would authorise the Homilies, that he might be able to circulate them ; but this she refused to do. At this time Parliament enacted that the oath of supremacy should be taken by all persons at their ordination, and further empowered the bishops to tender it to all ecclesiastics. The first refusal to take this oath was punishable by prcemunire, the second incurred the penalties of high treason (5 Eliz. i.). "In the archbishop," we read, "this severe Act created some pensive thoughts." The law was very objectionable, for it not only placed the bishops in a most odious position, but also left it to their individual judgment to administer the oath or not, as each thought fit. In a diocese where the bishop was indolent, tolerant, or had Romish sympathies, there would be a practical immunity for recusancy, except where the Court of High Commission inter- vened ; while in another where the bishop was a furious bigot, the hapless Roman clergy, who had already lost all for conscience' sake, would be sent to prison, and thence to the gallows for no other fault than their inability to declare their belief in the queen's ecclesiastical supremacy. Parker felt the difficulties of the situation as well as 1 " Parker Correspondence," p. 177. 2 Strype's " Life of Parker," p. 247. E 50 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. its invidiousness, and issued to his suffragans what he termed an advertisement, 1 in which he charged them on their canonical obedience to himself as their Metropolitan, as well as for " other good and de- liberate considerations," to "have a very grave, prudent, and godly respect in executing the Act." In any case where they had been compelled for the wilfulness of the recusants to administer the oath for the first time, they were to communicate the fact to the primate, and not to offer it a second time without his permission. He seems, from an expression about the "heads of the flock showing fatherly and pastoral care," and not " following their own private affections and heats," that he did not think his brethren much to be trusted, as he had told Cecil before. The archbishop was well aware that in issuing this advertisement, which contravened the apparent pur- port of an Act of Parliament, he was assuming a grave responsibility ; he therefore showed it to Cecil, who added a paragraph enjoining the bishops to keep the matter secret, the policy whereof, he doubted not, their "wisdoms" would see for themselves. What Parker here foresaw came to pass, and the indecorous behaviour of Bishop Home 2 in pressing the oath on Bishop Bonner, then a prisoner in the Marshalsea, led ultimately to another Act of Parliament, with a proviso repealing that portion of the Act which empowered the bishops to tender the oath. In this year Parker commenced the translation of the Scriptures called the " Bishops' Bible " from the number of bishops who took part in it. The Genevan Bible was the version then mostly used, especially by the Puritans ; it had been the work of the Marian exiles, assisted by Calvin and Beza, and printed in 1560 at Geneva, from which circumstance it derived its name. It was interspersed with " divers 1 " Parker Correspondence," p. 174. April, 1563. 2 See "Life of Bishop Home," p, 156. MATTHEW PARKER. 51 prejudicial notes," as Parker termed them, derogatory to bishops and the Church; but Elizabeth, in 1561, had granted to John Bodley a monopoly of its pub- lication for seven years, at the end of which time Parker himself wrote to Cecil asking him to use his influence with the queen that it might be extended for twelve years more. 1 Besides this, there was Tindal's translation, revised by Coverdale, and known as the Great Bible, which had been restored in the first year of Elizabeth's reign, and printed in 1562. The version projected by Parker was designed to take the place of all others, and be the only one read in churches. He took a leading part in the work, distributing their portions to the bishops and other divines who assisted him, and himself translating fourteen books in the New Testament and two in the Old. 2 He had asked for the assistance of Cecil, a request with which that great statesman did not think fit to comply. 3 While thus engaged he was compelled, though sorely against his will, to enforce conformity on the clergy whose neglect in using the Liturgy and violation of all rubrical directions were brought to the notice of the queen, who communicated her displeasure at it to Parker, and her wish to have it rectified. Accordingly, he at once conferred with the episcopal members of the Ecclesiastical Commission, and they drew up rules for the enforcement of con- formity, entitled "Ordinances accorded by the Archbishop of Canterbury." Delay ensued, and the queen's attention having been again, and more forcibly, drawn to the subject, she was so extremely provoked that, on January 25, 1565, she despatched a written mandate to the Prima-te, to use his authority as Metropolitan to confer with the bishops of the 1 " Parker Correspondence," pp. 261, 262. 2 The names of the translators and the portions assigned, are given in " Parker Correspondence," pp. 335, 336, notes. 3 Ibid., p. 290. 52 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. Ecclesiastical Commission and others, to ascertain these diversities of doctrines and ceremonies, and then proceed to correct them according to the laws and ordinances provided by Parliament. 1 The first result of this was the celebrated Book of Advertisements, the devisers of which, as stated by Parker in a letter to Cecil, were, besides himself, " only the Bishops of London, Winchester, Ely, [and] Lincoln." 2 Bishop Guest was one of the signatories, and probably, therefore, gave some assistance. It bore date the 2oth of January, in the seventh year of the queen's reign, that is, i$6$. 3 The Advertisements were a great violation of the rights of the clergy, for new oaths and penalties for nonconformity were imposed, which, as the lawyers told the archbishop, were illegal. They even altered the direction of the Act of Uniformity, which pre- scribed the cope to be worn at the celebration of the Communion, ;by limiting its use to cathedrals and college chapels. This was doubtless done to pro- pitiate the Puritans, by whom that vestment was regarded as the very garb of Antichrist ; and at this time, it may here be remarked, the copes began gradually to disappear from the parish churches. The Canons and Liturgy of James I. (1604) endorsed this alteration, and it henceforth became one of the regular articles of inquiry at episcopal visitations whether all " Popish trumperie," such as copes, etc., had been removed from the parish church. 4 In all this Parker knew that he stood on slippery ground, and incurred the penalties of prcemunire. He had repeatedly sought to obtain the queen's 1 " Parker Correspondence," pp. 223-227. 2 Ibid., p. 233. March 3 [1564-65]. 3 From the original in the British Museum. " Advertisements the xx day of January in 7th year, etc. Imprinted at London by Reginald Wolfe." 4 " Life of Bishop Bilson," p. 369. MATTHEW PARKER. 53 authorisation of the Advertisements, but in vain, as she alleged that his authority as Primate was suffi- cient. She expressed to him her wishes verbally, but a letter she refused to write, though that was the very thing which he and Grindal wanted, and without it they, at first, refused to stir in the matter, since, as they believed, only the royal consent in writing could give legality to the Advertisements. Parker, in especial, thought it hard that Cecil, who was the prime originator of them, should leave him in the lurch to execute them on his own responsibility, and expressed his sense of it in his own quaint fashion. 1 The queen, however, persisted in her refusal to give any authorisation of the Advertisements, and the Privy Council refused to confirm them, and Parker was left to his own resources ; compelled by the queen to act, and yet not furnished with the legal authority required for taking the prompt mea- sures of deprivation and suspension on which she insisted, and the lack of which exposed him to severe legal penalties. He was precisely in the position of the fabulous cat that roasted the monkey's chestnuts. Accordingly, he put on as bold a face as the cir- cumstances admitted, and in the preface to the Advertisements claimed the queen's mandative letter as their authorisation, though, as he himself admitted, 2 it was expressed in such general terms that it wanted legal force, for which, indeed, had it even been otherwise, it would have required the Great Seal. It is, however, unnecessary to discuss their legality, on which subject the following quotation must suffice : " No writer of reputation," remarks Lord Chancellor Selborne, " in any work published before the eighteenth century, seems to have suggested a 1 " Parker Correspondence," p. 235. 2 Ibid., p. 263. 54 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. doubt that they were, as a matter of fact, authorised by Queen Elizabeth." 1 Grindal, too, when in 1566 he issued his mandate for the clergy to wear the vestments, wrote of the Advertisements as having been " ordeyned by the Queen's Maiestie's authoritie." 2 In 1564 Parker had conferred with some of the chief Puritan ministers on their objections to the vestments, which were, that the Bible not mentioning the surplice, it could not be worn by Christian ministers, and that it was a defiled garment because it was used by the Romish priests at the Mass. Such arguments seemed to Parker contemptible. A minister, he argued, is not a sacrificing priest, and can use ceremonies that are not symbolical. Vestments are not symbolical, but only suitable, and no further tend to spiritual edification than pulpits and seats in churches. For those who disagreed with him, and made the wearing a square cap instead of a round hat a matter of conscience, or who regarded the use of the surplice as a justifiable ground for schism, he felt and expressed unqualified contempt. "Precise folk," "Convenient sober men pretending a conscience," " Silly recusants," " Persons more scrupulous than godly honest," and " Such as in a spiced fancy hold out," 3 were among the phrases by which he described the motives and conduct of the nonconformists. The archbishop must have been aware of the opposition he would encounter in enforcing the Ad- vertisements. His episcopal brethren proved them- selves to be the " leaky vessels " he had once called them, and some of them shrunk from the task assigned them." 4 Even Grindal was more than half-hearted in the business, both from his fears of 1 Lord Selborne's "Notes," p. 13. 2 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xxxix. 76. May 21, 1566. 8 " Parker Correspondence," pp. 270, et seq. 4 Strype's " Life of Parker," vol. i. p. 308. MATTHEW PARKEK. 55 prcemunire and his dislike of persecution ; while Pilkington, Bishop of Durham, declared that he would resign his see rather than compel his clergy to wear the vestments. As for the Puritan ministers, their attitude was most defiant, and they said they would go to prison and lose all their living rather than wear a square cap on their heads or a surplice on their bodies. 1 But all this mattered nothing to Parker, who was fixed in his purpose of enforcing the Advertisements, be the consequences what they might, and however unwise and disastrous his action in the matter may have been, judging it merely by its results, yet if estimated by the motives which determined it, it was creditable to him. With him obedience to constituted authority was, save when conscience intervened, a ruling principle of life. " Execution, execution, execution of laws and orders," he wrote to Cecil about this time, " must be the first and the last part of good governance, although I yet admit moderations for times, places, multitudes." 2 The particular matters in dispute were in themselves comparatively immaterial ; but they became important when promulgated by authority. At the close of his life he pathetically alluded, in a letter to Cecil, to this opinion. " Does your lordship think," he wrote, " that I care either for cap, tippet, surplice, or wafer-bread, or any such ? But for the laws so established I esteem them." 3 The royal authority for the Advertisements had not, it is true, been expressed as he himself would have wished, but he was satisfied that it was sufficiently so to leave him no course but that of prompt obedience. Yet, up to this time at least, he had been no persecutor, and the queen, in the letter she wrote to him that led to the Advertisements, had ascribed the 1 " Parker Correspondence," p. 263. ' Ibid., p. 246. 3 Ibid., p. 478. 56 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. diversities and irregularities of which she complained to the "lack of regard" shown by the archbishop and his suffragans for their correction. His mind being made up, he proceeded to action. On the advice of Bishop Home, he began with London, and ordered the clergy to appear at Lambeth on the 26th of March, 1 566, the queen, on the loth of that month, at an interview he had with her, having ordered him to imprison those who stubbornly refused to conform. One hundred and eight minis- ters appeared in answer to the summons, and on the same day the archbishop communicated the result of the meeting to Cecil. "Sixty-one promised conformity ; nine or ten Were absent ; thirty-seven denied, of which number were the best, and some preachers ; six or seven convenient sober men, pretending a conscience, divers of them but zealous, and of little learning and judgment. In fine, we did suspend them, and sequester their fruits, and all manner ministry, with signification that if they would not reconcile themself within three months, then to be deprived. They shewed reasonable quietness and modesty, otherwise than I looked for. I think some of them will come in when they shall feel their want, specially such as but in a spiced fancy hold out ; some of them no doubt were moved in a conscience, which I laboured by some advertisements to pacify, but the wound is yet green ; it is not felt as I think it will hereafter." l The immediate result of this conduct was foreseen by the archbishop, and had been expressed in a letter to Cecil written six days before the meeting. "In fine, we think very many churches will be destitute for service this Easter, and that many will forsake their livings, and live at printing, teaching children, or otherwise as they can. What tumult may follow, what speeches and talks be like to rise 1 " Parker Correspondence," p. 269. MATTHEW PARKER. 57 in the realm, and presently in the whole city by this we leave it to your wisdom to consider." x As he expected, so it turned out. The congrega- tions, in not a few instances, took the part of their ministers who had been silenced by the archbishop, and refused to admit the clergy whom he had sent to officiate, the churchwardens also refusing to pro- vide either a surplice or the wafer-bread. In one church, where Parker's own chaplain was taking the duty, a parishioner, during divine service, abstracted both the chalice and the wafer-bread, so that there could be no celebration. 2 At St. Giles', Cripplegate, the vicar and curate forcibly ejected from the church the choristers, who had come in their surplices to chant at a funeral. 3 But though Parker was able to perceive this, he did not foresee the ultimate conse- quences of the step he had taken. For, from this time, a party among the Puritans made an open rupture, which finally became an extensive and per- manent system of dissent from the Anglican Church. In 1568 Parker nominated two clergymen of his diocese, Richard Rogers and John Butler, for the queen to select one for the suffragan Bishopric of Dover. She selected the former, who was accord- ingly consecrated on May 19. The same year witnessed the completion of the Bishops' Bible, and on October 5 Parker wrote to the queen asking for her licence for the book, that copies might be sent to the different churches of the kingdom. In this letter he thus drew her Majesty's attention to the principles which had guided the translators. "Amonge divers observacons which have bin re- garded in this recognition one was, not to make yt varye much from that translacon which was comonlye used by publike order, except wher eyther the verietye of the hebrue and greke moved alteracon, or wher 1 "Parker Correspondence," p. 268. 2 Ibid., p. 278. 3 Ibid., p. 275. 5 8 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. the text was, by sum neglicence, mutilated from the originall." l The preface was written by Parker, in which, and in very touching terms, he expressed his sense of the supreme importance of the Scriptures. The publication of the Bishops' Bible was followed by the escape of Mary Queen of Scots, who landed at Workington on the i6th of May in the same year, an occurrence which seemed to the archbishop to be fraught with danger to religion and to the realm. " I am much careful," were his words to Cecil, on June 1 1, " for the success that may arise to the queen's person and the realm by the arrival of the Scottish Lady." 2 The sequel proved his alarm to be well grounded, for in the next year the Duke of Norfolk conspired for her release, Pope Pius V. excommunicated Elizabeth, and the Earls of Westmorland and Northumberland raised a serious rebellion in the North. Rome, too, was showing, by the decimation of the Protestants in the Netherlands and the perse- cution of the Huguenots in France, both her fear and her hatred of Protestantism. Parker had many enemies, and bitter ones, who in 1570 made an attempt on his life, for such he deemed the outrage, 3 by riddling his barge with holes. On August 7, in that year, his wife died, an event which he thus pathetically noted : " It hath pleased Almighty God, whose will is always best and must be obeyed, to offer unto me some matter of patience, and foolish frail nature troubleth me yet so, that I have much ado with myself to gather my wits and memory together ; but I thank God that yet it hath pleased his mercy to suffer my poor faith to prevail against natural considerations." 4 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, October 5, 1568. 2 "Parker Correspondence," p. 325. 3 Strype's "Life of Parker," ii. p. 2. 4 " Parker Correspondence," p. 368. MATTHEW PARKER. 59 He was not only hated by the Puritans, but mis- represented, and when in 1571 the crucifix was re- placed in the queen's chapel, from which it had been long removed, the proceeding was attributed to him, though he was ignorant of it, and disapproved of it also. 1 The restoration of the crucifix was contemporaneous with the revision of the Thirty-nine Articles, which once more passed through Convocation and Parlia- ment, and also received the royal ratification. The Canons also were drawn up in the same year, and were signed by all the bishops, or their proxies, except Barnes and Cheyney ; but the queen refused her formal sanction, thinking, or pretending to do so, that their authority being derived from hers was sufficient. Others, as Bishop Grindal, were of a different opinion, and felt that to enforce them on the clergy would incur prcetmmire? Elizabeth, how- ever, thought fit, in a letter she wrote to Parker urging him to see to the reformation of ecclesiastical abuses, to refer to them as a " convenient reforma- tion " into which he and his suffragans, Home and Cox, had "well entered." 3 Thus encouraged he took action, by calling in all licences to preach, issuing new ones only to conforming ministers. The massacre of the Huguenots on St. Bartholo- mew's Day, August 24, 1572, drew a letter from Parker to Lord Burghley, in which he " marvelled " at the extraordinary increase of the "papists," for which he could account only on the supposition that the Puritans were at the bottom of it. 4 He also suggested a remedy in the prompt execution of the Queen of Scots, " that desperate person," as he styled her, a counsel, which was echoed by his brother 1 " Parker Correspondence." Date, February 6, 1570-1. 2 "Grindal's Remains" (published by Parker Society), p. 327. 3 " Parker Correspondence," p. 386. Date, August 20, 1571. 4 Ibid., p. 398. Date, September 15, 1572. <5o LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. bishop, Sandys, who strongly urged the Lord Treasurer " furthwith to cutte of the Scottish Quenes heade." The last transaction of importance in which he took part was the suppression of the prophesyings, which, as they will be dealt with in the life of Arch- bishop Grindal, need no mention here, except to add that he readily executed the royal mandate. In March, 1575, the queen visited him at Canter- bury, when she was entertained at a cost of about ;2OOO, a sum nearly equal to the income of his see. 1 She frequently dined with him at Lambeth, and on one such occasion is said to have insulted Mrs. Parker, though we hope for her credit as a lady the story is not true, by an indecorous jibe at the status of the wives of the clergy. " Madam I may not call you," she addressed her hostess as she took leave of her, " and Mrs. I am ashamed to call you, so as I know not what to call you, but yet I do thank you." 2 Archbishop Parker died at Lambeth on May 17, 1575, and was buried with great pomp in his chapel, but in the time of the Civil War his tomb was broken open, and his remains thrust into a hole. They were afterwards recovered by his successor, Sancroft, and suitably re-interred. Archbishop Parker, notwithstanding his munifi- cence and hospitality, died very rich. 8 He had several children, but only one son survived him his eldest, John, who died in 1618. His descendants for a century and a half were famous in the naval annals of England, and one of them was Peter Parker, created a baronet in 1782 for his distinguished services. Though he was not, perhaps, a great archbishop, yet his attainments and character, and the great services he rendered to religion and the Church of England, remove him far from mediocrity. Humble, 1 " Parker Correspondence," pp. 474-476. 2 " Briefe View," p. 4. 3 See " Life of Archbishop Grindal," p. 71. MATTHEW PARKER. 6 1 modest, learned, and pious, he was always inclined to moderation, which was ill understood by the ex- tremists of either party ; the queen finding fault with him for being " too soft and easy " in his treatment of the nonconformists, while they railed upon him as a persecutor and a papist : yet that part of his public conduct for which he has been so severely censured was due to his conscientious conviction of the extent of the royal authority, and of the im- portance of maintaining order in the Church. His devotion to the queen was certainly very great, yet it was not servile, proceeding neither from ambition nor fear, from the first of which faults his sincere desire to escape the primacy acquits him. That he was constitutionally diffident, if not timid, we have from his own pen, that records his " natural viciosity of overmuch shamefastness," but in the cause of duty he was brave enough, and could, and did, face the royal lioness herself. " I will not be abashed," he wrote, after a stormy interview with Elizabeth, "to say to my prince that I think in conscience, in answering to my charging. As this other day I was well chidden at my prince's hand ; but with one ear I heard her hard words, and with the other, and in my conscience and heart, I heard God." l His faithful rebukes to his old friend, the Lord Keeper Bacon, for his alienation of Church property, well illustrates his moral courage ; for few things are more painful to sensitive natures than to reprove one's friends, especially those to whom we lie under great obligations. As a public character he was a great encourager of learning, and also of art, for the promotion of which his purse was always open. In private life he was faultless, a loving husband, a tender and affectionate parent, an attached and constant friend, a just and kind master. 1 " Parker Correspondence," p. 311. 62 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. EDMUND GRINDAL. 1519-1583- BISHOP OF LONDON, 1559; ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, 1570; CANTERBURY, 1576. ARCHBISHOP GRINDAL was born at Hensingham, a village near St. Begh's, Cumberland, and was the son of a farmer. A story is related of his preservation when a boy from the arrow of a careless sportsman, which would have pierced his heart but for a book which he carried in his doublet. Though, as he him- self has told us, his native place was " the ignorantest in religion " 1 in all England, yet he was even in his youth distinguished for his piety and learning. At the age of fifteen he went to Cambridge, and became a student, first of Magdalene, afterwards of Christ's, and then of Pembroke, where he became fellow in 1538, in which year he had previously taken his B.A. degree. Ridley was his tutor, and no doubt greatly influenced his pupil in favour of Protestantism. In 15/14 he was ordained by the Bishop of Chester, and, of course, at that time said Mass like any other priest, 2 but about 1547 the perusal of Bullinger's treatise on the " Origin of Error," led him to reject the dogma of Transubstantiation, 3 against which, about two years afterwards, he argued with great ability before the Royal Commissioners at Cambridge. His " Disputation at Cambridge " and " A Fruitful Dia- logue between Custom and Verity," which contained his new opinions on this subject, were among the most important works published at that time on the Protestant side of the controversy. 1 Lansdowne MSS., 51, printed in " Grindal's Remains." 2 "Grindal's Remains," p. 211. 1 " Zurich Letters," i. p. 182. EDMUND GRINDAL. 63 In 1549, being then senior proctor, he was made Lady Margaret preacher, and also Vice-Master of his college. In 1551 he became chaplain to Bishop Ridley. Precentor of St. Paul's, and chaplain to King Edward, who, in the year following, gave him a canonry of Westminster, and placed him on a com- mission to review the Articles of Religion. Though at this time little over thirty he was thought of for a bishopric, but the restoration of Romanism under Mary completely changed the situation, and the near prospect of a mitre dissolved itself into a nearer one of the stake. His master, Ridley, was already doomed ; he had humbled himself before the queen at Framlingham, begging for pardon on his knees, but had been rudely repulsed and sent to the Tower. His fellow-chap- lains, Bradford and Rogers, had (August 16, 15 53) been brought before the Privy Council, and were now in prison waiting their crown of martyrdom. Grindal, accordingly, sought safety in flight, and escaped to the Continent, residing successively at Strasburg, Was- selheim, Spires, and Frankfort, which last place he visited to advocate the use of the English Liturgy among his brother exiles, and compose the differences which had arisen among them on that account. Though unable himself to be one of the noble army of Protestant Martyrs, he assisted Foxe to compile his famous book 1 that records their sufferings. Returning to England on the day of Elizabeth's coronation, January 15, 1559, he at once took part in all the measures then adopted for the promotion of Protestantism, chief among which was the revision of the Prayer-book. His zeal against Romanism, accentuated and embittered by the remembrance of his martyred master, now found ample scope for action. In the conference at Westminster with the Roman Catholic bishops and divines, he was one of 1 " The Acts and Monuments of the Church." 64 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. those who so ably championed the Protestant cause, and was also a member of a commission appointed to visit the cathedrals of the North of England, and to inquire into the religious condition of those parts. His report was of the gloomiest ; heathen darkness and the grossest superstition prevailed, and nowhere more so than amongst the clergy, of whom he de- clared that mere deprivation was insufficient, and that to permit them, especially the bishops, to retire into private life, gorged with the spoils of the Church, was an excess of charity. 1 Grindal had already been rewarded with the Master- ship of his college (July 20, 1559); he was now made Bishop of London, to which see he was conse- crated December 21, I559- 2 It was not without much anxious thought that he persuaded himself to accept the post, for in many respects he was a Puritan. To copes, organs, chant- ing, bowing to the east, kneeling at the Communion, and even questions put to godparents at the font, he objected, and, as he afterwards solemnly declared, had laboured to remove them. Yet as a bishop he would not only have to conform to these usages himself, but to compel others to do so. He consulted the chief of the foreign reformers, and was materially guided by their advice. The question at last resolved itself into the simple one of whether for the sake of a few cere- monies and ornaments, sufficiently absurd indeed, yet in themselves indifferent, he and those who shared his sentiments should allow the Church, which in all the great essentials of truth and worship was Pro- testant, to fall into the hands of a Romanizing party. They had freedom to preach the gospel, and in that and the possession of an evangelical and Protestant Prayer-book, lay, as was believed, permanent safe- guards against superstitious worship. Besides, there " Zurich Letters," ii. p. 24. 2 Congt cftlire, June 22, 1559. EDMUND GRINDAL. 65 was hope that the few ritualistic blots which remained might in the future be removed, and that the queen would cease to oppose her individual wishes and opinions to those of the Church. Such were the considerations which determined him, in common with Jewel and many other prominent Protestants, to cast in his lot with the Anglican Church, and be a member of its hierarchy. 1 In the religious condition of the country there was also at this time much that added weight to them, and which would naturally make a pious and zealous man hesitate before declining to occupy a post that abounded in opportunities of usefulness. For not only was the spiritual destitution of the kingdom appalling, but in many parts, its chief towns especially, there was an intense desire for instruction in the Word of God, the voice of a people who had long dwelt in darkness and the shadow of death, but whose tomb was now riven and who were crying for the light of eternal life. Nowhere was this more visible than in that great city, the chief pastorship of which had been offered him. Before dawn the church-bells began to ring, and multitudes wended their way along the streets of London to join in divine service, and conse- crate themselves to God before commencing the labours of the day. The churches were thronged with men, women, and children, who all devoutly joined in the plain worship which they understood, and which was closed by a simple psalm sung without the aid of organ or of choir. The occasion was truly a great one, but Grindal rose to it, and in suffering himself to be consecrated a bishop, it was that he might feed the flock of Christ committed to his charge. He was emphati- cally a teacher and a preacher of the gospel, and at Paul's Cross delivered many sermons, some of them on important occasions, as the first reading in public 1 "Zurich Letters," i. pp. 169, 176. F 66 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. of the new Prayer-book in 1559, an ^ at the obsequies of the Emperor Ferdinand in St. Paul's Cathedral, in 1564. Bishop Grindal commenced his episcopate by hold- ing large ordinations to fill up the ranks of the clergy, thinned by death and deprivation, and the difficulty of finding suitable persons was so great that he ordained many of an age above what was usual. Several on whom he laid hands were more than fifty. John Foxe, the martyrologist, whom he ordained priest, was forty-three, and one Thomas Cooper was turned sixty. In 1561 he visited his diocese, beginning with the cathedral, which he found in a very unsatisfactory state. Three of the prebendaries did not appear, and were accordingly pronounced " contumacious ; " one was presented for immorality, the master of the school for refusing to receive the Communion, and the sacristan for embezzling the Church funds. He gave valuable assistance in the important ecclesiastical measures of the time, but these having already been dealt with in the life of Parker need not be particularised. He also took a prominent part in the translation of the Bishops' Bible, his share consisting of the whole of the Minor Prophets. He was a leading member of the Court of High Com- mission, and bore a large share in the performance of the odious tasks assigned to it, in the execution of which he was sometimes hurried into acts which belied his real nature and severely strained his conscience. It is painful to have to record of the "gentle Algrind," as his friend, the poet Spenser, anagram- matically called him, that he could on occasion suggest the use of torture to open the lips of a Romish priest. Yet such was the case. For a poor cleric named Haverd, or Howard, who had celebrated Mass in a private house, was brought before Bishops EDMUND GRINDAL. 67 Grindal and Cox to answer the charge, and, refusing to criminate himself by replying to interrogatories, they thus expressed their opinion to the Privy Council : "Some think that if this Prieste haverd might be putt to some kynde of Torment, and so driven to confesse what he knoweth, he might gayne the Queue's Majestic a good Mass of Monye by the Masses that he hath sayd : But this we referre to your Lordshipps' Wisdome and so committe the same to Almighty God." l Towards the Puritans Grindal at first showed a gentleness that highly displeased the queen ; but he afterwards enforced conformity, though he was in substantial agreement with those whom he had to punish. 2 They, it must be said, retaliated, and on one occasion he was mobbed in London House by sixty women clamouring for the release of their minister. Their first open schism was in 1577, when they hired Plumbers' Hall, where they conducted divine service with a liturgy approved of by Calvin, which had been used by the Protestants in London in the reign of Queen Mary. For this the leaders were sent to prison, where they remained a long time, but were at last released through the earnest inter- cession of Grindal with the Government, 3 a service which they entirely ignored in their partial account of the matter. 4 Though he was obliged to suspend and deprive those ministers who refused to conform, he did his best to mitigate their hardships, for he implored Cecil to petition the queen that they might be pardoned all the payments of first-fruits due after deprivation 5 a small boon, indeed, as it appears 1 Cecil MSS., Hatfield, September 3, 1563. Printed in Haynes' State Papers. 2 "Zurich Letters," i. p. 175. " Grindal's Remains," pp. 316-319. 4 Ibid., p. 301. 5 Ibid., p. 389. 68 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. to us, and a bare act of justice. Their ministers did not always respond to his overtures, for two of them, whom he had licensed to preach on their promise to conform, availed themselves of the permission, but broke their word. The reasons assigned by some of the Plumbers'-hall schismatics for their noncon- formity were not a little remarkable. The Book ot Psalms, they declared, had plainly forbidden the use of vestments in the worship of God, by saying " Thou hast magnified Thy Name and Thy Word above all things " (Ps. cxxxviii. 2). To the foreign Churches under his jurisdiction, the Dutch and the French, his relations were always amicable, the former voluntarily choosing him as their superintendent, and the latter in one of their controversies appealing to his decision. The fact of their ministers not being episcopally ordained, as an essential of the ministry, presented no difficulty to Grindal ; on the contrary, he distinctly recognised the validity of Presbyterian orders as existing in Scotland. 1 In April, 1570, Grindal was translated to the Archbishopric of York, the conge d'elire being issued on the 1st, and the election made on the nth, of that month. The see had been vacant since the death of Dr. Thomas Young (June 26, 1568), and six months afterwards Dr. Hutton, then Dean (afterwards Archbishop) of York, wrote to Cecil strongly recommending Grindal for that primacy. There was much need, he declared, of a good arch- bishop who must be " a teacher because the country is ignorant, vertuouse and godlie because the countrie is geven to sifte a man's life, a stout and courageous man in Gode's cause because the countrie otherwise will abuse hym, and yet a sober and discret man, least to muche vigorousnes harden the hartes 1 Grindal's "Register," quoted in Strype's " Life of Archbishop .Grindal," pp. 402-596. EDMUND GRINDAL. 69 of some that by fayre meanes might be mollyfied such a man as ys bothe learned hymselfe and also loveth learninge, that this rude and blynde countrie maye be furnished with learned preachers." 1 The Bishop of London, he added, was " known to be " such a man, and therefore he wished him to be translated to York. Archbishop Parker also wrote to Cecil, but in a colder strain of recommendation, of Grindal as a man whom he thought " fit for York, a heady and stout people, witty but yet able to be dealt with by good governance as long as laws can be executed and men backed." 2 The new archbishop set out for his diocese on August i, 1570, and on the 28th wrote his impres- sions of it to Cecil. They were not favourable, the contrast between the men of Yorkshire and those of London being painfully great. Ecclesiastically, it seemed to be "another church rather than a member of the rest," and in it he discerned " three evil qualities, great ignorance, much dulness to conceive better instructions, and great stifnes to retain their wonted errors." 3 A long and serious illness prevented his visitation till the following May, when he accomplished it, and his Injunctions show its nature. Rood-screens, albs, tunicles, censers, crosses, candlesticks, images, and altars were all to be removed. The crucifix was to be replaced by the royal arms or some other " convenient crest." All unrubrical gestures were forbidden, the bread was not to be put in the mouth of the communicant but in his hand, and the minister vested in a " surplice with sleeves " was to read the prayers from a desk outside the chancel, with his face always turned to the congregation. 4 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xlviii. 41. November 13, 1568. Printed also in Strype's "Annals," I., ii. 262, 263. 2 Lansdowne MSS., xi. 57. June 3 [1569]. 3 " Grindal's Remains," p. 326. 4 Ibid., pp. 123-144. 70 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. At the close of his visitation he wrote to Leicester about the terrible spiritual destitution of that part of England. It was the old story told by so many other bishops, only worse. Little or no learning among the clergy : its cause the " exilitie of stipends for ministers speciallie in the greatest townes ; " its result a people uninstructed in religion. A parish with fifteen hundred people often had but a stipend of 7, and was either not served at all, or by some stray curate from a neighbouring parish. 1 The death of Parker vacated the See of Canterbury, and, while he lay dying, Burghley was considering who should fill his place, and wrote to Walsingham naming Grindal as the " metest one to succeede," partly on account of his admirable governance of the northern primacy, and partly because that position was next " by degree " to the Archbishopric of Canterbury. 2 His letter enclosed one from Dean Nowell, strongly recommending him as being " a man of the greatest wysedome and habilitie to governe, unto whom the other bysshops w th best cotentation wolde submit themselffe." The advice was taken, but not for a considerable time ; for, though Parker died on May 17, Grindal was not nominated as his successor till November. He hesitated for a fortnight before he could persuade himself to accept the archbishopric ; but at last, feeling that the offer was a call from Heaven, he decided to do so. 3 The restitution of his tem- poralities was not made till April 22, for the revenues of the see were believed to be much above the amount on which the tenths were levied. From Grindal's statement in reply to these objections we learn some curious facts. His predecessor, Parker, had, he admitted, died very rich ; but he pointed 1 Additional MSS., British Museum, 32091, f. 242. 2 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. ciii. 48. Date, May 15, 1575. 3 Strype's " Life of Grindal," p. 283. I EDMUND GRIND AL. 71 out that many of the sources from which he had derived such large gains, would either not accrue to his successor, or were of a nature that, speaking for himself, he could not conscientiously make use of. One of these he thus particularised : He " made a more profit than hitherto is convenient by admitting children to the Communion." 1 When his temporali- ties were restored, his income 2 was rated at 2784 A new Ecclesiastical Commission, of which he was a member, having been issued, 3 he at once prepared to visit his diocese and province, for which purpose he issued his Articles of Inquiry, which evince his former hostility to ritualism as shown in his Injunc- tions ; but he had scarcely entered on his duties as archbishop when he was suspended for his refusal to suppress the prophesyings at the command of the queen. These celebrated exercises were, at first, meetings for religious discussion and prayer among the conforming clergy ; but afterwards they were attended by large numbers of deprived ministers and also of the laity, the subjects discussed em- bracing politics as well as divinity, and in time assumed the proportions of ecclesiastical conferences. The queen had long regarded them with disap- proval, and in the year before his death had ordered Archbishop Parker to suppress them, a mandate with which he at once complied. With experimental religion she had no sympathy, and throughout her reign held the opinion that all the religious knowledge necessary for the common people was supplied to them in the Prayer-book, in the lessons read to them on Sundays and holy days, and a homily once a quarter. To want more than this was to show a fantastical temper, if not a 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cvii. 41. 2 Calendar, Hatfield MSS., pt. ii. p. 259. 3 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cviii. 7, 8. April 23, 1576. Also printed in Strype's " Life of Grindal." 72 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. tendency to schism, that called for repression. To sermons for the laity at large, Elizabeth entertained both dislike and distrust, and had she been able, would have done to the end of her reign what she did at its beginning, closed the pulpit and silenced the preachers. The want of the age, as her own bishops repeatedly told her, was a learned ministry, and, till such could be produced, a supply of able and pious preachers to itinerate the country ; but to this want she was, despite occasional professions to the contrary, pro- foundly indifferent. The queen's opinions of the prophesyings were, it must be admitted, also those of the majority of her bishops, one of whom, Barnes of Durham, Grindal's personal enemy, condemned them and their supporters with extreme bitterness. The conduct of such as favoured these prophesyings was, he declared, but " the maleapertnes of Brain- lesse men," while the meetings themselves were " so perillouse as none can be more," and " savouring over much of the Anabaptists who wish a popular government." 1 The sentiments of Archbishop Grindal respecting these religious exercises differed from those of the queen ; he felt, indeed, that they had been abused, but he felt also that the abuse of an institution is no argument against its use, and he was convinced that in themselves they were godly and profitable. He looked at the matter from the lofty standpoint of his responsibility to God for the spiritual welfare of the flock committed to his charge, whereas the queen looked at it from the far lower one of the safety of her ecclesiastical prerogative and her own narrow- minded fastidiousness. The archbishop, to safeguard the prophesyings from future abuse, drew up rules 2 for their better 1 Lansdowne MSS., xxv. 78, February II, 1573. 2 Strype's "Life of Grindal," pp. 377-8. EDMUND GRINDAL. 73 management, the gist of which was to place them under the complete control of the bishop of the diocese, to limit the topics of discussion to Scriptural subjects, and to suffer no layman or deprived minister to speak. This, however, was far from satisfying the queen, and at an interview which Grindal had with her in the beginning of December, 1576, she peremptorily commanded him to obey the order she had given him, and suppress the prophesy- ings totally and at once. The archbishop would have argued the matter, but her Majesty cut him short, telling him to do as he had been com- manded. He then withdrew to Lambeth, whence he ad- dressed a letter to her, couched in terms of the utmost respect, but in plain language expressing opinions worthy of his high position. The letter is too long to be given in full, but its substance may be summarised. His duty to God was before all other con- siderations, and His Word had commanded him to preach the gospel to every creature. The people of the country parishes of England were lamentably ignorant and superstitious, and stood in need of religious instruction. The prophesyings had already been of use in that respect, and would probably be more so in the future. On these grounds he felt unable to suppress them, though he was willing to safeguard them from abuse. In concluding he prayed her to remember that in matters affecting religion, it was her duty to consult those who were competent to advise her on the subject. 1 The letter was written about the 8th of December, and was sent through the Earl of Leicester to the queen. On one point Burghley advised him to 1 The original of this letter is not to be found, but a draft of it, endorsed by Burghley, December 20, 1576, is in Lansdowne MSS., xxiii. 12. 74 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. yield, by abandoning a feature of the prophesyings which was peculiarly offensive to the queen, namely the presence of the laity. But this Grindal deemed essential. " I see no reason," he wrote back, " why the people shoulde be excludett, seinge S. Paule geveth so greate comendation to that w c h was in the p r mytive Churche (i Cor. xiv.), especially for the benifitte yt growed therby to the hearers." 1 Elizabeth kept the archbishop some time before she deigned to answer him, and then she insisted on being obeyed. He refused, and in March, 1577, the matter was brought before the Star Chamber, and he was ordered to comply with the royal mandate, but he again refused. On the 8th of May the queen wrote to the bishops, ordering them to suppress the prophesyings, and the archbishop was suspended for six months, and ordered to keep to his house, two civilians being appointed to discharge all his functions, except those which were strictly spiritual, such as the consecration of bishops, 2 which he duly performed to the end of his life. During the time of his first suspension he wrote many letters to the queen, " humble writings," as Burghley termed them, in which he implored the royal mercy, but to no purpose, for they were not humble enough, since they neither surrendered his position nor promised unqualified obedience. According to the form of the Ecclesiastical Courts, a person under such a suspension as had been laid on Grindal must make a submission within six months, otherwise he may be proceeded against as obstinate. 3 Acting, therefore, under the advice of his friend and secret supporter, Lord Burghley, the 1 Lansdowne MSS., December 17, 1576. 2 These were Rochester (1578) ; Exeter (1579) ; Winchester (1580) ; Lichfield (1580) ; Gloucester (1581). 3 Burnet's " History of his own Time," referring to the similar case of Bishop Compton. EDMUND GRINDAL. 75 archbishop wrote a letter 1 to the Lords of the Star Chamber beseeching their mediation with the queen. In it he expressed his grief for having offended her, but declared he had acted only from a sense of duty ; he allowed the justice of his punishment, which, he said, might lawfully have been greater, and admitted that though his own opinions could not be changed, yet that others might lawfully differ from him. The document, however, contained no promise of altering his conduct. The queen was furious, for she regarded the letter as one of self-justification, and seriously contemplated his deprival, but from this despotic act she was restrained by many considerations whereof any com- passion for the archbishop was scarcely one. General sympathy was felt for Grindal in the harsh treatment he had experienced ; among the Privy Council he had many friends and supporters, as Burghley, Leicester, and Sir Francis Knollys, the queen's vice-chamberlain and personal friend, who was a great advocate of the prophesyings. 2 Even among the members of that Court, by means of which Elizabeth had effected his suspension, there were some who felt that he had been hardly dealt with. The bishops and clergy also greatly re- sented the outrage upon their ecclesiastical head, Barnes, of Durham, alone excepted, who was not ashamed to describe Grindal's opposition to the queen as " wilfulness " and " obstinacie." 3 Besides, had he been deprived, it would have been no easy matter to have found a successor, both capable and willing, for Whitgift, on whom she had fixed her eye 1 Lansdowne MSS,, xxv. 79. The letter is signed " Edm. Cantuar," but is undated; but as it alludes to his "six months' sequestration," was probably written at the end of November (1577). Strype says the 3Oth. Its substance is in Strype's " Life of Grindal," pp. 403, 404. 2 "Parker Correspondence," p. 457, note.; " Hutton Corre- spondence," p. 59. 3 Lansdowne MSS., xxv. 78, February II, 1577-78. 76 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. as the next Primate, had too much integrity to be a usurper. 1 This being so, the queen abandoned her intention of depriving him, but refused to remove his suspen- sion, and there is no evidence of its ever having been done ; if so, it must have been but a short time before his death. Nor does it appear, though the contrary has been asserted, that he ever made the submission which was required of him, or abandoned the position for maintaining which he had suffered so much. When Convocation met in January, 1581, Grindal was still suspended, and two of the bishops, Whitgift and Piers, devised 2 a form of submission for him to make, but whether he adopted it cannot be de- termined. Meanwhile he was tossed about from pillar to post, " inter spem metmnque" as he phrased it to his friend, Dean Hutton, 3 according as his friends or his enemies prevailed, now "putt in assured hoape of libertie," and now dejected, as there " arose a sudeyn contrarie tempest." Occasionally he was cheered by a gleam of royal favour, which, if sincere, was evanescent. " My case dependeth longe," he wrote 4 to his old friend Hutton, February 18, 1579, after one such gleam, "and some repulse offsute latelye made hathe bene geven ; and yett, iff a man maye beleve in courte promesses, I was att no tyme so neare an ende off my trebles as att this present. Domini voluntas fiat." It has already been mentioned that the clergy resented the queen's treatment of the archbishop, and gave expression to it in the only way in which it was safe for them to do so. On the meeting of Con- vocation, twelve 5 of the bishops of the Province of 1 See " Life of Whitgift," p. 223, and note. 2 Additional MSS. British Museum, 32092, f. * " Hutton Correspondence," p. 58. 4 Ibid., p. 60. 5 This practically was nearly the entire number, for the Sees of Oxford, Gloucester, and Bristol were vacant ; the Bishop of Bath and EDMUND GRINDAL. 77 Canterbury drew up and presented a petition to the queen, praying for the restoration of the Primate, adducing much the same reasons and arguments as had been contained in Grindal's famous letter. The Lower House also presented a similar petition, but to neither of them did she pay the least attention. From this time the queen urged his resignation, which Grindal was perfectly willing to make if a moderate pension were secured to him, and which his circumstances made necessary, for his extensive liberality had much impoverished him. On April 12, 1583, he wrote to the Lord Treasurer expressing his full resolution to resign ; l but his death, which happened on the 6th of the following July, prevented the accomplishment of his purpose. His remains were interred in the chancel of the church at Croydon, where he had died, and a monument was erected to his memory. His will, dated May 8, 1583, contained numerous bequests, 2 which, however, formed but a small part of what he had dispensed in his lifetime. The interest he took in education was here specially shown. The colleges of Pembroke, Magdalene, Christ's, and Corpus, at Cambridge, received be- quests at the two former for fellowships and scholarships, and to Queen's College, Oxford, he gave stipends for a fellow and two scholars. He was a considerable benefactor to Highgate School, and founded and endowed a free grammar school at St. Begh's, for which, in 1583, he obtained royal letters patent. He left much to the poor. His hospitality, without being profuse, was on a scale that corresponded with his high position, though he sometimes complained, and with reason, Wells was dying, and of the four Welsh bishops three were absent from Convocation. 1 The letter is in Lansdowne MSS., xxxviii. 69. 2 They are given in the " Athenoe Cantabrigienses," i. p. 476. /8 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. of Fulham Palace being turned into a hostel for the reception of the queen's distinguished guests, to whom he was to furnish gratuitous entertainment. Thus, when it was once proposed to billet Cardinal Chastillon and his train upon him, he wrote to Cecil in deprecation of the plan, on the ground of his " Lacke of provision," adding with a touch of humour, " I observe one Canon off the Counsell of Carthage; ' oportet Episcopum habere vilem supellectilem? Yff he be to be farther assigned I praye you spare me, for surelye I lacke convenient furniture." * Archbishop Grindal was conspicuous for his piety, which showed itself not only in the fruits of a holy life, but in constant acts of charity ; in learning and abilities consecrated to religion ; in tolerance, which a sense of duty to the Church of which he was a chief ruler alone restrained from negligence ; in a fearless rebuking of vice in high places ; in meek sub- mission to unjust punishment ; and in the resignation with which he endured a torturing malady, and the deprivation of that bodily sense, which of all the senses is, perhaps, the sweetest the sense of sight. RICHARD COX. 1499-1581. BISHOP OF ELY, 1559. BISHOP Cox was a native of Whaddon, Bucking- hamshire, and was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, where, having entered in 1519, 1 " State Papers, Elizabeth," 1568, Septemter 15. RICHARD COX. 79 he took his B.A. degree in 1524. He became a canon-student of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1525, but his sympathy with the Reformation caused him to quit that post, and he was appointed Head-master of Eton, where he gained great distinction. Henry VIII. made him his chaplain, and Cox secured the royal favour by giving his vote in the Convocation of 1 540, for annulling his marriage with Anne of Cleves. He also preached the sermon before the two Houses of Convocation in 1541, taking for his text the words of our Lord to His disciples, " Ye are the salt of the earth;" but considering the base business on which they had been occupied, divorcing a poor lady for no other reason than that her husband did not fancy her, it must be admitted that they much resembled " salt that had lost its savour.' 1 His merits, coupled with his compliance with the royal pleasure, gained for him abundant and speedy recompense, and no Protestant divine has probably ever surpassed him in the extent and variety of his preferments. Between the years 1541 and 1549 he received from the Crown the Archdeaconry of Ely ; canonries at Ely, Lincoln, and Windsor ; and the deaneries of Christ Church and Westminster, both of which he held together, and most of the others, as it would seem, also. Cranmer, too, made him his chaplain, and collated him to the Rectory of Harrow- on-the-Hill. He held also other high offices, some lucrative, others only honorary, among which were a chaplaincy to King Edward, to whom he was tutor l and almoner, the Chancellorship of Oxford University, the place of a Privy Councillor, and Mastership of Requests. He was also " thought of " for the bishopric of Southwell, when it was contemplated to convert it into an episcopal see ; but the scheme was abandoned, and 1 As he was to Princess, afterwards Queen, Elizabeth. See " Stephenson's Introduction, Vol. I. Foreign Calendar, Eliz." 80 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. the accession of Queen Mary not only terminated his hopes of further promotion in the Church, but also deprived him of all his preferments, and lodged him in the Marshalsea prison on a charge of treason. Whereon such a charge could be based it would be difficult to discover, but the fervour and efficiency of his Protestantism made him most obnoxious to the Romanists, and to Bishop Gardiner especially, whom, at the time of his deprivation for holding Romish views on the Real Presence, he had bitterly attacked in a sermon he preached at Paul's Cross. His conduct in the former reign could not be forgiven. He had brought a wife to the Deanery of Christ Church ; as one of the Commission of Visitation of that University he had allowed, if not caused, the colleges to be despoiled of their valuable manuscripts and books, on the plea that they were " popish ; " and had stood by indifferent, if not sympathetic, while altars, images, and organs were thrown promiscuously into the rubbish heap. 1 He had also been on a com- mission for the suppression of heresy, that is of Romanism, and on the deprivation of Day, Bishop of Chichester, in 1551, for refusing to destroy the altars of the Churches in his diocese, Cox had been sent there on an anti-ritual crusade, and with special instructions to preach against Transubstantiation. Moreover, he had rendered material assistance in drawing up both the Edwardian Prayer-books. The charge of treason, however, was absurd, for whatever he had done had been under royal authority ; besides, a man who had filled such high posts must have had many friends, even at the Romish Court of Mary, not to say old Eton scholars. The result was his liberation after but a few months' captivity, when, in the month of May, 1554, he escaped to the Continent. He resided at Frankfort, where he came into violent 1 Montagu Burrows' " Worthies of All Souls," pp. 68, 69. RICHARD COX. 8 1 collision with John Knox, in 1555, on the subject of the English Prayer-book used by the exiles. The great Scotch reformer was for mending it according to his own ideas, but Cox, as became one who had revised it, was opposed to the least alteration, and having secured the ear of the civil authorities, induced them to authorise it. The accession of Elizabeth, which he heard of when at Worms, brought him back to England, and he was appointed to preach the sermon at the opening of Parliament, on January 25, 1559. On that occasion the usual ceremony of the Mass of the Holy Ghost was dispensed with, so far at least as any royal attendance at it was concerned, for it was performed at an early hour, but without elevation. The queen at her entrance into the Abbey was met by the Abbot in his full pontificals, and the monks bearing lighted torches. She submitted to the odours of the incense, but for the rest she exclaimed, "Away with these torches, for we see very well." 1 That word " away " as she pronounced it must have sounded like a sentence of doom in the ears of the Roman Catholic party, though to a degree they must have been prepared for sweeping Protestant measures. Many parts of Elizabeth's conduct had plainly indicated her future attitude towards Romanism. On the previous Christmas Day she had quitted the chapel during the celebration of the Communion, because Bishop Oglethorp, who was officiating, had refused to obey her order forbidding the elevation of the elements, and a few weeks afterwards put Bishop Scory in the pulpit, where, with extreme bitterness of language, he reviled the Mass. Nor was this all. For only two days before the opening of her Parliament she had a farce performed in her presence after 1 Calendar State Papers, Venetian. II Schifenoya to the Mantuan Ambassador at Brussels, January 30, 1558-9, p. 23. G 82 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. supper, in which crows dressed as cardinals, asses as bishops, and wolves as abbots, played their respective parts in ridicule of the Romish hierarchy. 1 The example thus set by the sovereign was soon followed by her subjects, and plays burlesquing the Roman ceremonies and clergy were daily performed in taverns, to which citizens were invited by placards posted at the corners of the streets to pay their money and see the show. 2 The scandal, however, soon rose to such a height that it was prohibited by royal proclamation. 8 The sermon preached by Bishop Cox, for which he had, doubtless, taken his cue from the proceedings of the Court, was a furious attack on the Romanists, especially on the priests. They had, he declared, been the cause of the sufferings of the Protestant martyrs in the late reign of blood and fire, and he besought her Majesty to show them no mercy, but requite them to the uttermost. For that purpose God had placed her on the throne of England, and given her the sword that she might avenge the blood of His saints, and extirpate the impious priests of Rome. He further exhorted her to destroy all images, and remove every vestige of Popish idolatry and super- stition. 4 While the attitude of Cox to the Romanists was one of uncompromising hostility, his views towards the extreme section of the Protestants was far more moderate. For though strongly attached to episcopacy and to the English Liturgy, and abhorring both the principles and practices of the numerous sects that swarmed on the Continent and were but too much in evidence in England, he was, as he wrote to his friend Bullinger, in favour of a radical reformation of religion, and for restoring the worship 1 Calendar State Papers, Venetian, January 23, 1558-9, p. n. - Ibid., February 6, 1558-9, p. 27. 3 Ibid., April u, 1559. 4 Ibid., January 25, 1559. RICHARD COX. 83 of the Anglican Church after the most simple and primitive models. 1 In this spirit he undertook, for the third time in his life, the congenial task of drawing up a Prayer-book, and he entered the committee-room of the revisers pledged, so far as ritual was concerned, to a severe Protestantism. His cast of mind herein may readily be traced in the preface he wrote to the Second Book of Homilies, which laid the axe to the very root of ritual as being in any way necessary for worship, as well as in the homilies themselves, in the composition of which he is credited with a large share. His contempt for rites and ceremonies gave some colour to the charge afterwards brought against him of having held an ordination in an ale-house. The charge was probably untrue, but it would hardly have been made had it not had some foundation in his negligence and contempt of ritual in other matters. His controversy with the queen on this very point is one of the interesting features of his public career. Though Elizabeth, in essentials at least, was no Romanist, yet she had a liking for some ceremonial observances, amongst which were lights burning on the holy table, and the crucifix above it, with the celebrant habited in a golden cope. In the eyes of Cox these things were so many "marks of the Beast," outrageous insults on the pure gospel, and when he was commanded to officiate before those obnoxious emblems and clad "in the golden vest- ments of the Papacy," he penned a letter of re- monstrance to her Majesty, enclosing considerations that moved him that he " dared not minister in her grand chapel, the lights and cross remaining." The considerations were the usual Protestant arguments to be found at length in the homily " Against Peril of Idolatry." His conclusion was 1 Strype's " Life of Parker," i. p. 197. 84 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. doleful but ineffectual : " I therefore a miserable man, dust and clay, having these and such like considerations before mine eyes, cannot without offence of God and conscience yield to the setting- up of images in the temple of my God and Creator." l He had appealed to her " for the mercy of God not to force his conscience so hard ; " but his appeal was as vain as his arguments, for Elizabeth insisted, and Cox yielded, though, as he said, "with a trembling conscience." 2 Yet a few months after he had thus, to the scandal of the Puritans, administered the Lord's Supper, he argued in favour of the retention of the crucifix before certain moderators appointed by the Privy Council, when Jewel and Grindal took the opposite side. The action seemed inconsistent, but from a letter he wrote to his friend Cassander a month after the disputation, and in which he asked for his opinion as to whether a cross, by which he meant a crucifix, was allowable in churches, provided that no worship or veneration was paid to the image, 3 it would appear that he had been brought to consider the question as being at any rate arguable. The homily, however, settled this question by the declaration that worship was an accident inseparable from images. In connection with the celebration of the Eucharist, Cox not only objected to lights, crucifixes, and copes, but to altars, and shortly before the queen issued her Injunctions of 1559 he drew up and gave to her a paper entitled " Certeyne reasones to be offered to the Quene's Ma ties consideracon why it is not convenient that the Comunion shoulde be mynystered at an altare." 4 His arguments were that the Lord's Supper was commemorative and not, except in a figurative sense, sacrificial, and that 1 Strype's " Annals," I., ii. 500. Petyt MSS., 538. 2 " Zurich Letters," i. 63 and 66, note. 8 Ibid., ii. 41, 42. 4 Petyt MSS., No. 538, vol. 38, f. 29. RICHARD COX. 85 therefore an altar was inappropriate and deceptive. As is well known, the queen issued her order for the removal of stone altars from the parish churches, but she was extremely angry with her commissioners for obeying it. Meanwhile, he was elected to the Bishopric of Norwich, but a few months afterwards was removed to that of Ely, on the deprivation of Thirlby, whom he had formerly succeeded as archdeacon. He was consecrated on December 21, 1559, and was also made a member of the first Ecclesiastical Com- mission. Parochial organization being now urgently needed, Bishop Cox gave valuable help in the appointment of readers and drawing up homilies. In 1561 he made the primary Visitation of his diocese, previously to which he had issued his Injunctions. An account of it is in the muniment-room at Ely Palace, 1 on which the editor thus comments : " Such a picture of an English Diocese I have not met with elsewhere." The churches in but too many instances were undefaced, the holy water stoops had not been taken out of the porches, nor had the pictures on the walls been whitewashed, and even crucifixes were still to be seen. Many churches were without Prayer- book or Bible, more had no homilies. In one church there was no pulpit, and in another, St. Botolph's, Cambridge, there was no chalice. The work of Cox as a Protestant reformer was cut out for him, and he addressed himself to it with his usual decisive vigour, so that when his next Visita- tion came round, in 1564, matters had materially improved, at least from the iconoclastic point of view. The parish churches had been duly defaced, and the ornaments, so offensive to sturdy Protestants, 1 Historical MSS., Commission Report: " Papers of the Bishop of Ely," edited by Dr. A. Jessopp, Appendix, pt. ix. I2th Report, 1891, P- 374- 86 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. been carted away ; but there had been no corre- sponding improvement in the moral or religious con- dition of the people. Yet Bishop Cox exercised praiseworthy care in admitting persons to the ministry, and at one of his last Ordinations, held on October 19, 1580, he rejected eight out of twenty-three can- didates after examination. 1 His second Visitation completed, he made his report to the Privy Council of the state of his diocese in the month of November, 1564, to which he added certain " Brefe Notes," as he called them, or recommendations as to the right mode of dealing with the Romish " blasphemers," by which he meant the priests. The more stubborn of these were to be either " banished or cut off from conference with such as be ' fawtors ' of their religion." The rest to be compelled to sign an open recantation or be im- prisoned. In the same Notes he expressed himself with equal intolerance of a very different body of religionists, the " Sectaries," as they were often called. " Item," he adds, " incorrigible Arians, Pelagians, or Free-will men be sent into some one castle in North Wales or Wallingford ; and there to live of their own labour and exercise : and none others be suffered to resort unto them but their keepers, until they be found to repent their errors." 2 For the old Romish clergy who had conformed, he entertained an abhorrence and contempt, not alto- gether without reason. Years afterwards he showed this on the suppression of the prophesyings, which he deprecated because they had not been established by public authority that is, the queen's but which his opinion of the Romish conforming clergy disposed him to regard with favour. For, as he wrote, " When the greate ignorance, Idlenesse, and lewdnesse of the greate number of Poore and blind Prestes in the 1 " Papers of the Bishop of Ely," pp. 383, 384. 2 Historical Commission Report, Cecil MSS., pt. i. p. 308. RICHARD COX. 87 Clergye shalbe depelye weyed and Considered of, it wilbe thought most necessarye to Call them and to drive them to some travayle, and exercise of God's holy word, whereby theye maye be the better able to discharge ther Bounden duty towards ther fflocke." 1 In the opinion of Bishop Cox the pope was Antichrist, and for the poor nonconforming priests who hazarded their lives by teaching their religion to their own people, he could find no milder epithet than " sowers of impiety," and " teachers of blas- phemies." 5 When, in 1564, the Government made him the custodian of Dr. Thomas Watson, the de- prived Bishop of Lincoln, a vehement Romanist, he so badgered him by persistent religious controversial talk at all times and in all places that at last he refused to open his lips. It is true he was but in this carrying out the instructions of the Government, 3 but he did so with an unnecessary exactness. As an Ecclesiastical Commissioner, he would sometimes, in the case of a suspected priest refusing to answer questions, recommend his being put to the torture. 4 Towards the Puritan clergy who rebelled against copes and flat caps he was equally severe. He was one of the devisers of the Advertisements, and it was in a measure owing .to his advice that Archbishop Parker forced conformity on the London clergy. 5 These facts will give us a picture of the man as a ruler of the Church. Arbitrary in temper, severe in practice, with an indomitable hatred of those nor were they a few whom he deemed " adversaries," he brought to the governance of the flock of Christ the same principles which had influenced him as 1 Lansdowne MSS., xxv. 29. - "Zurich Letters," i. 113, et seq, 3 State Papers, MSS., vol. cxiv. 69. [July, 1577 ?]. 4 See " Life of Archbishop Grinlal," p. 67. " Parker Correspondence," p. 270. 88 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. Head-master of Eton an inflexible determination to make his own will the law, and to punish with the utmost severity those who resisted him. He possessed eminently that " ludi-magisterial" dis- position which, many years afterwards, Abbot, Arch- bishop of Canterbury, applied to his brother prelate, Bilson. As a classical scholar, he was one of the foremost men of his age, and served the Church well in this respect. At his instance it seems probable that the Primate undertook the translation of the Bishops' Bible. 1 Yet in this, and it is to his credit, a desire for the edification of the common people predomi- nated over the fastidiousness to be expected from an elegant scholar and the captiousness of a critic. For he insisted on the retention of "such usual words that we English people be best acquainted with in their form and sound, so far forth as the Hebrew will well bear." 2 His portion consisted of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans. Three episodes in the life of Bishop Cox have made him conspicuous. One of them, his refusal to minister in the royal chapel, has already been mentioned ; the other two remain to be narrated. Of these, the first in point of time, though not in importance, being merely a personal matter, was his marriage with the widow of Dr. Turner, late Dean of Wells. He was then in his seventieth year, and of such infirm health that he wrote to his friend Bullinger that he was daily expecting his "dismission," when, as he piously said, his " spirit would return to heaven and his body be consigned to the earth." 3 It would however, appear from his subsequent conduct, that he 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xxi. 18, 192 : Bishop Cox to Sir W. Cecil, January 19, 1561-2, and May 3, 1564. 2 "Parker Correspondence," p. 282. 8 "Zurich Letters," i. 208. RICHARD COX. 89 cherished other and more mundane thoughts. The queen was deeply incensed. Seven years before, when she had issued her order forbidding women to reside in the precincts of colleges or cathedrals, Cox had written an indignant letter to the Primate, in which he had declared that to "forbid or deface marriage was the doctrine of devils," l and he wrote a similar one, though somewhat toned down in its language, to the queen, in which he reminded her that the institution of matrimony, of which she had spoken in such evil terms, had been " blessed by Christ himself." 2 This expostulation she now remembered, and the bishop was brought before the Star Chamber, and, but for the strenuous mediation of Cecil, would have been sent to prison. For to that great statesman he had written a piteous letter of appeal, in which, with unnecessary minuteness, he had detailed the reasons which led him to take the step which had so angered her Majesty. The royal indignation, he declared, was death, and a burden only less heavy than the anger of God, which, as he rather strangely pro- tested, he would have incurred if he had not taken to himself a wife. 3 He confessed that his marriage had made him the town's talk and exposed him to much derision and abuse, a circumstance which would but the more inflame the royal displeasure. Even in our own day the historian Froude has flung some mud at the "grey-haired old gentleman," as he calls Bishop Cox, by applying to him an epithet contemptuously degrading. 4 Yet in itself the marriage was not unsuitable, for the lady was middle- aged, and the bishop had a number of young children 1 " Parker Correspondence," p. 151. State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xx. 12: The Bishop of Ely to the Queen, October 1561. 3 Ibid., vol. xlviii. 64. December 29, 1568. 4 " History of England," ix. p. 379. 90 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. who stood in need of a mother's care. Elizabeth forgave the bishop at least, she abstained from sending him to the Tower but when the opportunity presented itself for punishing him, she laid her hand upon him with crushing weight. That opportunity came seven years afterwards. The Bishopric of Ely ranked third in point of value amongst all the sees of England and Wales, being excelled only by those of Canterbury and Winchester, its annual income being above 2000, an amount which must be increased tenfold if we would gain an idea of its value at the present time. The bishop, moreover, possessed three palaces for his residence, with spacious grounds, deer-parks, and chases, together with a house in London which equalled in grandeur the mansions of the greatest noblemen. He possessed Palatine jurisdiction over the Isle of Ely, and the appointment to the offices of chief justice and high steward were in his gift, together with many other feudal prerogatives. In fact, he was a prince-bishop. As was but to be expected, so rich a prize could not fail to attract the cupidity of the land-grabbing courtiers of Elizabeth, and "divers noblemen had endeavoured by entreaties, bribes, and the inter- position of friends " to filch from the bishop the possessions they coveted ; but, as he subsequently declared, he remained "inexpugnable." But in 1575 a more serious assault was made upon his property, and this time by the queen herself. For Lord North coveted the episcopal residence at Somersham, Hunt- ingdonshire, with its park and grounds, and Sir Christopher Hatton desired the Bishop's town house at Holborn, with its fourteen acres of pasture land, and its fair garden immortalised by Shakespeare's mention of its " good strawberries." x The pair of robbers, having made ineffectual 1 King Richard III., act iii. sc. 4. RICHARD COX. 91 attempts on the bishop themselves, obtained the interference of the queen on their behalf. The way such things were done then was for her Majesty in the first instance to demand the estate in question to be surrendered to herself, when she would re-convey it to the expectant courtier. This was now done, and she wrote one of her usual imperious mandates to Bishop Cox to devise the manor of Somersham to herself for Lord North's benefit. The Bishop replied in a letter full of flatteries of her Majesty as "his sacred anchor" and "the most pious nurse, cherisher, and defender of religion in a wicked and godless age." l Elizabeth was fond of flattery, but she was much fonder of her own way, and no amount of praise could compensate for any defect in yielding to her will and pleasure, and as Cox's letter was in effect a refusal to obey her, she was extremely offended. Besides, he had made use of an indiscreet expression about " Harpyes and Wolves," and Lord North, getting hold of the letter, showed it to the queen, and persuaded her that the phrase was intended for herself. Not for a year did the bishop make the discovery, and only when it was too late to repair the results of the error did he write to Lord Burghley to correct it. 2 Meanwhile every engine of oppression that could be devised by malice and greed was put in force. To entangle him, if possible, in a prcemunire, and furnish charges against him before the Privy Council, the agents of Lord North went through the country, and by suborning and "suggillating" the bishop's enemies managed to get together a vast quantity of diocesan scandal, on the strength of which articles of accusation were framed against him. Of these, one was his neglect of his diocese, another his great wealth and his extreme meanness in the 1 Strype's "Annals," II., ii. 567. 2 Lansdowne MSS., 21 (41). 92 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. matter of hospitality, a third his litigiousness, while others deposed to his having held an ordination in an alehouse, and Mrs. Cox's management of her husband's dairy in driving hard bargains over the episcopal cheese and butter had a place in the items. Burghley's remark as to the graver of these charges, that if true they were a good reason for punishing the bishop, but not for despoiling the bishopric, was quite to the point. The charges, when heard by the Council, completely collapsed. Lord North failed also in another attempt he made at the same time, to obtain the episcopal manor of Downham by an action at law on the strength of a clause in an old lease. The attack on Ely House, Holborn, was, however, more successful. Sir Christopher Hatton, afterwards lord chancellor, but at that time only gentleman of the queen's Privy Chamber and captain of her guard, was her Majesty's chief favourite, and had gained a greater ascendency over her mind and affections than any of her courtiers had ever done before. She could refuse him nothing that he asked for, and as he wanted Ely House she ordered Bishop Cox to surrender it. The demand was illegal, for she had no power 1 to alienate the episcopal residence. Convinced that he could not grant the lease required of him without injury to his successors, he gave a civil but firm refusal, whereupon she ordered him to appear before her and give an account of himself. The "hurly-burly," to use the bishop's phrase, which arose in consequence was, as he told the lord treasurer, 2 too great to be accounted for by this first denial of Mr. Hatton's suit, and he more than hinted that it was his opposition to vice in high quarters that had brought down the storm upon his 1 See " Life of Archbishop Parker," p. 35, note. 2 Lansdowne MSS., 20 (67) : Bishop Cox to Lord Burghley, November 21, 1575. RICHARD COX. 93 head. It may, indeed, have been that the old prelate, who was very outspoken, and used to write even to the queen herself on the most delicate matters with considerable freedom, had seen that in her intercourse with Hatton of which he disapproved, and had com- municated his sentiments to both of them, and that so, his eviction had been the result not only of greed but of vengeance. He persisted in his opposition for a considerable time, but in 1577 yielded so far as to grant a lease of his house at Holborn for twenty-one years. Hatton at once took possession, and proceeded to improve his property by divers repairs and the purchase of some small adjoining tenements, at a cost of 1995. This done, he began seriously to reflect that he had been not a little imprudent in making so large an outlay on a property the lease of which would expire in so short a time, so he once more repaired to the queen, and besought her to use her authority to get matters put on a better footing. This she was very ready to do, and that not only on his account, but on her own. Hatton owed her a large sum of money, for which he had no security to offer, except his lease on Ely House. So she wrote once more to the bishop, ordering him to demise the premises to herself till he, or his successors, should pay to Sir Christopher Hatton not only all the money he had already spent on his improvements, but also any further sums he might expend for the same purpose. Bishop Cox replied in a long letter, written, as his others had been, in Latin, in which he urged her, and that on many accounts, not to insist on com- pliance with her mandate, because such an act on his part would be sacrilege, and would incur the anger of God. This was the gist of it, drawn out in an amplitude of phrase, and couched in abject language of flattery. Her Majesty, he told her, was the 94 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. " Vicaress of God " in the Church of Christ, 1 and was " the sole support of the episcopal order." Elizabeth construed this rigmarole into a refusal ; and so scared the bishop by the manifestation of her displeasure, though the form it took is not known, that he made the required demise, which she at once gave to Hatton to hold from the Crown. At his death, in 1591, she seized it, together with the rest of his property for the liquidation of his liabilities to herself, and finally sold it for 7000 to Lady Elizabeth Hatton, the niece-in-law of Sir Christopher, omitting, however, to tell her that it was liable to redemption on payment of the money which her uncle had expended on it. 2 Notwithstanding the queen's displeasure with Bishop Cox, she had far too much common sense to allow it to interfere with her business, and his services, being too valuable, despite his years, to be dispensed with, she made use of them as long as he lived. Even in the midst of the strife about the first lease, when, in the year after the death of Archbishop Parker, a new ecclesiastical commission was issued (April 23, 1576), he was again made a member of it, and in the same year visited St. John's College, Cambridge, and drew up statutes for its government. He was also still employed as custodian of Roman Catholic prelates, with an eye to their conversion ; and for this purpose, never attained, Feckenham, ex- Abbot of Westminster, was, in 1 577, committed to his keeping at Downham Park. He, however, stubbornly refusing to be made a Protestant, appears to have found his way to the episcopal gaol at Wisbech. 3 Nor was the customary interchange of civilities 1 Lansdowne MSS., Ixi. 2. 2 For a full account of the subsequent history of this lease, see ' Autobiography of Bishop Patrick," pp. 164-170. 3 Cooper's " Athenoe Cantabrigienses," i. p. 442. RICHARD COX. 95 between the queen and the bishop omitted, for in the year 1578 he made a present to her Majesty of 30, receiving in exchange a silver-gilt tankard. Bishop Cox, worn out with years and troubles, was at the close of his life anxious to resign his see on a suitable pension, and, after much haggling, the arrangement was finally made. Others were also anxious that he should do so, notably Aylmer, Bishop of London, who for four years had been watching the bishopric and the bishop with the sharp eyes of greed. He seems to have made a compact with Sir Christopher Hatton with reference to it, and a few months before the death of Cox wrote to Sir Chris- topher a very unfeeling and shameless letter respecting it. " You may," were his words in urging his suit, " use dyvers argumentes to helpe forward the matter : as the crookedness of the ould tired father, whom if her Ma tie do not soon ease hym of this place of service, she must shortely loose him either by deathe, where she can have but the boones, or by unreason- ablenes of service, in w c h case she shalbe sewer to be deceaved." 1 The " ould tired father," however, died before his resignation was effected, the reasons being that no divine could be found to accept the see on the conditions on which it was offered, and it remained unfilled for twenty years. His death happened on July 22, 1581, and he was buried with great pomp in Ely Cathedral. 1 Sir Christopher Ration's "Letter Book;" Additional MSS., British Museum. Date of Letter, March, 1581. 96 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. ROWLAND MEYRICK. 1505-1566. BISHOP OF BANGOR, 1559. BISHOP R. MEYRICK was born in Anglesea, and graduated in law at St. Edward's Hall, Oxford. Having taken orders as a secular priest, he became Principal of the New Inn Hall in 1534, and afterwards Chancellor and Canon of St. David's, and in that capacity was present at the first Convocation of Edward VI. His first appearance in public was as a church- robber of the grossest type, when he had for his assistant Thomas Young, afterwards Archbishop of York. For the See of St. David's being vacant, through the removal of Barlow, Meyrick and Young, who had been appointed to take charge of the diocese, stole the cathedral plate and jewels, worth five hundred marks, and further enriched themselves by sealing blank leases without the king's know- ledge. Ferrar, who succeeded Barlow in 1547, proceeded to visit the Chapter and inquire into these spoliations, and presently dismissed Meyrick and Young from their offices, on account of the wickedness of their lives and their neglect of duty. He further exasperated them by certifying them as refusing to pay their share of the royal subsidy a highly penal offence. They retorted by formulating fifty-six articles of accusation against him, 1 drawn up by Meyrick, who, in 1552, appeared before the Privy Council and swore to their truth. They were either false or frivolous, one of them being that the bishop in riding used 1 They are given in Foxe's "Acts," ed. Townshend, vii. pp. 4-16. EDWIN SANDYS. -97 " white Scottish stirrups and white spurs," and another that he had made his son Samuel a "monster" by giving him two godmothers. But Ferrar was sent for to London to answer them, and detained there till the accession of Mary, when he was sent to Carmarthen, tried for heresy, and burnt on March 30, 1555. Young, repenting of his share in the infamous business, visited Ferrar in prison and obtained his forgiveness, but no such "godly sorrow" on the part of Meyrick is recorded. Queen Elizabeth, however, employed him to visit the Welsh dioceses v and those of Hereford and Worcester, and gave him the Bishopric of Bangor, to which he was consecrated December 21, 1559. His rule of his diocese can only be inferred from the lamentable state in which his successor found it. Bishop Meyrick died on January 24, 1566. He was married and had a son, Sir Gelly Meyrick, who was executed for assisting the Earl of Essex in his treason- able insurrection. EDWIN SANDYS. 1516-1588. BISHOP OF WORCESTER, 1559; LONDON, 1570; YORK, 1577. ARCHBISHOP SANDYS was born at Hawkhead, Lan- cashire, and was of good family, both on his father's and mother's side. His tutor was a priest named Bland, who was burnt for his Protestant opinions in the reign of Mary a circumstance which must have had its share in stamping the mind of his pupil with the abhorrence of Romanism, which was one of its chief characteristics. He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, H 98 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. where he took his B.A. degree in 1539, becoming Master of Catharine Hall in 1549. He also held the Vicarage of Haversham and Canonries of Peterborough and Carlisle, both of which he received from the Crown. He warmly supported the Duke of North- umberland in his attempt to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne, preaching a sermon in the University Church to advocate her pretensions, and making a defiant speech in the Senate House as Vice-Chancellor, when he flourished his dagger in the faces of those who opposed him. This unclerical boldness procured for him speedy incarceration, and on the 25th of July he was sent to the Tower, and afterwards to the Marshalsea, where he is reported to have converted his gaoler. After thirty-eight weeks of close confinement he was liberated, at the instance, it is said, of Queen Mary. "Winchester, what think you about Dr. Sandys ? is he not sufficiently punished ? " was her question to Bishop Gardiner. "As it pleases your Majesty," was the courtly reply. 1 On his liberation, Watson and Christopherson, both soon to be bishops, hastened to Gardiner and told him that he had set free the greatest heretic in England. Messengers were at once sent after him, but in vain, for he embarked on Sunday evening, May 6, 1554, and the constables only arrived in time to catch sight of the ship as it stood out to sea. He remained abroad during that reign, and when at Strasburg lost his wife and only child. Return- ing to England (January 13, 1559), he at once took a prominent part in the ecclesiastical measures of that epoch. As a reviser of the Liturgy, his dislike of ritual was conspicuous, and we learn from a letter of his to Parker that if it had been left to the com- mittee, the famous Ornaments Rubric would have 1 Miss Strickland's " Lives of the Queens of England," vol. iii, P- 473- EDWIN SANDYS. 99 had no place in the Prayer-book of Elizabeth. 1 What he thought of the Prayer-book was evident from his action in the Convocation of 1563, when he submitted to the bishops a proposal to alter it to suit the whims of the extreme Protestants. His appointment as a member of the royal com- mission to visit the north of England and remove all idolatrous objects was quite to his taste, but his zeal in taking away the stone altars gave great displeasure to the queen, a displeasure he so much increased soon afterwards by opposing the retention of the crucifix that she threatened to quash her nomination to his bishopric. He does not appear to have coveted the mitre, or indeed any high preferment, refusing the See of Carlisle, vacant by the deprivation of Oglethorpe, and only accepting that of Worcester to avoid displeasing the queen. To that see he was consecrated on December 21, 1559, and soon afterwards held his primary Visitation, and showed such severity in depriving, punishing, and reforming the clergy as to elicit more than one stern remonstrance from the archbishop. 1 The queen, though she had issued her Injunctions, did not, it must be believed, desire them to be too hardly pressed, at first, at least. But such temporising policy did not commend itself to the judgment or nature of Sandys. Angli- can churchmanship was not, in a great many respects, at all to his liking ; it was, as he phrased it, " a yoke." He himself had submitted to it, so should others. " If I be under the yoke, such as pertain to me shall draw in the same yoke with me," had been his reply to the Primate's censures of his over-harsh Visitation. 2 As might be expected, the stone altars of the 1 " Parker Correspondence," p. 65. 2 Ibid., pp. 125, 126. 100 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. Worcestershire and Warwickshire churches were the objects of unsparing attack wherever they might be found. Sir John Bourne, brother to the deprived Bishop of Bath and Wells, and formerly Secretary of State to Queen Mary, resisted this spoliation of his parish church, and was forthwith sent to prison. The diocesan rule of Bishop Sandys at Worcester was marked by constant strife with all sorts and con- ditions of men, and an unsparing rigour in enforcing conformity, but these were not its chief features. His great function was that of a spoliator, who robbed the Church for self-enrichment, impoverishing his successors by leasing out the estates of the see to his own family and dependents. To his brother, Miles Sandys, he let out for three lives, and at an insufficient rent, the farm of Flad- bury, one of the best of the episcopal manors, together with a ninety-nine years' lease of the par- sonage of the same place. This same relation also received the lease of Overbury, which he sold directly afterwards for 300, and other good things besides. By his influence, or rather his compulsion of the dean, Dr. Pedder, the bishop obtained for his wife the farm of a parsonage worth .300. Nor were his servants forgotten, for, having got the dean and chapter under his thumb, he compelled them to give to one of them a lease of the parsonage of Old Rodner, which was presently sold for 200, and in a similar way obtained from the College the lease of Overwood for another of them. He " forced " (this is the word used in the depositions) the dean and chapter, partly by bribes and partly by threats, to give to himself the lease of the valuable farm of Wharton, and soon afterwards received as the fine for its renewal the substantial sum of ;6oo and a horse. On the eve of quitting the diocese he would have leased out all the rent corn of Grimley and Hallowe, had not the dean and chapter refused to allow it. EDWIN SANDYS. IOI He pulled down a manor house at Northwick be- longing to the see, selling the materials and pocketing the proceeds, and destroyed " a fayre chappelle " in his palace at Worcester for the same purpose. When about to leave the diocese he partly dismantled the episcopal residences at Hartlebury and Worcester, tearing planks from floors, stripping lead from roofs, and even taking away forms, stools, and cupboards, which he sold to his agent, one Mr. Abington. 1 These statements rest on the authority of one person, and so, if they stood alone, might be deemed insufficient evidence of Sandys's dishonesty, were it not that they are corroborated from other quarters. His successor in the see, Bullingham, died terribly in debt to the queen, and among the causes assigned were the heavy charges he had incurred in having to furnish three episcopal residences, and, worst of all, the crushing cost of reparations and dilapidations. 2 To make the picture complete, it ought to be added that he obtained from the queen for his eldest son Samuel, then a child, the reversion of the lease, for a hundred years, of the great manor of the lord- ship of Ombersley, 3 where his descendants still reside. In 1570 Sandys was translated to London, where, according to his own account, everybody wanted him extremely the queen, the Privy Council, his private friends, and " the whole people." 4 This moved him to regard it as a call from God. Nevertheless, he was very unwilling to go, as indeed were all the bishops, as Archbishop Parker tells us, the reason being that they would have, as he said, " to begin new game again for fees and fruits." 5 Strype, in giving the reasons which led the Government to choose him for 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cxi. 26. - See "Life of Bishop Bullingham," p. 109. 3 State Papers, James I., February,' 1608-9, vol. xliii. 66. 4 LansdowneMSS., xii. 32 : Bishop Sandys to Cecil, April 26, 1570. 5 " Parker Correspondence," p. 359. 102 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. the post, thus summarises his merits : " Sandes was in his nature a stirring and stout man, a promoter of the Queen's ecclesiastical commands ; one that had been a bishop a great while, and so acquainted with the practical part of his office." x His congt d'ttire was issued on June I, 1570, and he was elected accordingly. Before entering on the " practical part of his office," by which is meant the persecution, more or less illegal, of recusants and nonconformists, he thought it necessary to safeguard himself from the many enemies which his exalted position would be certain to produce. He had deeply offended the Earl of Leicester by deserting him for Cecil, a more powerful patron as he judged, so he wrote an importunate letter imploring his protection and countenance. 2 He also extracted a promise from the queen, that, before believing injurious reports against himself, she would grant him an audience. He soon showed himself to be " stirring and stout," for, in his Injunctions, he pressed strict conformity on the Puritans, and even took from them the per- mission to conduct religious services in their houses which his predecessor had granted them. He also subjected the Dutch Church in London to a more rigid control. The Puritans retaliated, and stung him to such a pitch of rage by their opposition and libels, that he proceeded against them with the utmost severity in the Court of High Commission, of which he was a member, and also called on the Government to prosecute them. Finding this quite insufficient, he proposed in the Convocation of 1571 that a national council should be summoned for the extirpation not only of the abominable Romanists, but also of the detestable Puritans. But his counsels were not attended to. 1 Strype's " Life of Archbishop Parker," vol. ii. p. 7. 2 Additional MSS., British Museum, 32091, ff. 185. Date, January EDWIN SANDYS. IO3 It was, of course, against the adherents of the pope that his wrath flamed the highest and burnt the hottest. The massacre of St. Bartholomew at Paris on August 24, 15/2, transported him to such a frenzy that he at once wrote to Burghley advising him "furthwith to cutte of the Scottish Quenes heade." A few months afterwards his reckless rage against the Papists led him to attack the privileges of the foreign ambassadors. For, having discovered that a great many persons resorted to the residence of the Portuguese ambassador for the celebration of the Mass, he wrote to the Earl of Leicester x demanding its immediate suppression. He gained his point, but the language and sentiments of his epistle were worthy of a grand Inquisitor. He advocated the severest punishment for this outrage, as he called it, and volunteered, if the queen would only empower him, to " handle the idolatrous proud Portingale according to his deserts." Meanwhile he urged Leicester to the task, reminding him that those were cursed of God who did His work negligently, and that the Mass was treason against God and man. In 1577 he was translated to the Archbishopric of York, the royal assent to his election being given on March 8. Soon after his installation he visited his diocese, and then his province, and on October 28, 1577, sent in a report to the Privy Council of the recusants. 2 There were about two hundred of them, and embraced all classes, from a countess to a blacksmith. Among them appears the honoured name of Wilberforce, " Joan Wilberforce, wief of Wilbforce." He could do nothing with them in the way of making them con- form : he tried argument and he tried force, but they were inflexible in their Romanism, and he declared 1 Additional MSS., British Museum, 32091, f. 266. Date, March 4> 1572-3. 2 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cxvii. 23, p. 561. 104 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. to the Government that he " never knew or heard of a more stifte necked, wilfull or obstinate people." That small recusant flock were, as he said, but "scurvie sheepe," nevertheless it was the " will of God that they be called home, and compelled to come in." So he gave them the alternative of coming to his house for the purpose of religious conference, or of going to prison, and they preferred the latter. The Visitation of his province was marked by a bitter controversy with Whittingham, Dean of Durham, and Hutton, Dean of York, both of whom contested his right to visit their cathedrals. On his arrival at Durham, Whittingham shut the doors of the cathedral in his face, whereupon the archbishop declared that he was not a dean at all, since he had never received episcopal ordination, but had only been admitted into the ministry at Geneva after the fashion of the Calvinists. Whittingham retorted by asserting that he had a better claim to be a minister than the archbishop himself, who totally lacked all evidence of Apostolic grace, being a lover of filthy lucre, and a lord over God's heritage. The arch- bishop replied by excommunicating his refractory subordinate, and getting a commission of inquiry appointed. The death of Whittingham, however, terminated the controversy. His quarrel with his own dean was more pro- longed and complicated, for other causes than the refusal of his power to visit intervened to continue the strife. At last Sandys could bear it no longer, and, in order to get rid of him, suggested to Burghley that he should be made a bishop. " Stand my good friend in this matter," he wrote to Burghley, " in nothing can you more pleasure me, for I cannot live with that man. The Bushoprick of Litchfield wold serve the turn." x The man with whom Sandys here declared he could .* Lansdowne MSS., 28 (80). Date of letter, December 28, 1579. EDWIN SANDYS. IO5 not live had been spoken of but a few years before by Archbishop Parker, a very good judge of character, as " a very honest, quiet, and learned man." 1 That Sandys could not get on with him, therefore, was probably not the fault of the dean, but of himself. A few years afterwards he drew up articles against him, which covered the offences of years, and which were of such a serious kind that deprivation would have been a very small punishment for them." 2 He was, they set forth among other charges, " a 'papist at heart;" he had "depraved" the Prayer- book by endorsing Whittingham's Calvinistical ordination ; he had incurred pramunire by resisting the archbishop's Visitation on grounds derived from old papal privileges ; he had " embezzled " the cathedral property, and, to sum up, he wrote of him as " a man who hath no great regard to what he saith, nor what he sweareth." 3 These charges, it must in fairness be said, were made nearly five years after his recommendation of Hutton for the bishopric, and it may therefore be charitably supposed that he was not aware of them when he suggested the removal of his obnoxious subordinate, and so may really have believed that, though Hutton made a bad dean, he would succeed better as a bishop. The charges, on examination by the Privy Council, turned out quite baseless, and were dismissed accord- ingly. The real unpardonable offence seems to have been the refusal of the Dean and Chapter of York to yield to the proposals of Sandys by granting to his sons patents of Church lands. In 1582 the archbishop got into serious trouble. While on his Visitation, he slept at an inn at Don- caster, the landlord of which was one William 1 " Parker Correspondence," p. 360. 2 These Articles are given in Strype's " Annals," III., i. p. 467. 3 Strype's "Annals," IV., pp. 595-598 106 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. Sissons, who had once possessed a good landed estate, which his extravagance had compelled him to mortgage, 1 and his wife had formerly been maid to Mrs. Sandys. These two wretches, instigated by Sir Robert Stapleton, a pretended friend of the archbishop, but really an enemy, conspired to ruin the old prelate's character. The archbishop woke in the middle of the night to find the landlady by his side, and her husband in the room full of simulated fury. Sir Robert Stapleton, who was staying there too, appeared as a mutual friend, and, acting on his advice, the archbishop did the very worst thing he could, by bribing everybody to keep silence, and so avert scandal from the Church. As was but to be expected from such wretches, the more the archbishop yielded to their demands the greater those demands became, and Sissons and his wife were once overheard, congratulating them- selves on the success of their infamous plot, de- claring that they had never done such a good stroke of business in their lives as when they con- cocted it. As for Stapleton, nothing would content him but the best manor of the see. Then the archbishop, per- ceiving that he was going to be pillaged, brought the affair before the Privy Council. His innocence was established by the confession of the guilty persons, who were severely punished. In the trial, however, the archbishop was guilty of what in our days would be deemed a flagrant con- tempt of court ; for he requested the commissioners, of whom Dean Hutton was one, who had been appointed to receive the confession of the landlord Sissons, to omit in their report any statements made by him that could in any way damage the arch- bishop's character, even though they should qualify or mitigate his offence. The commissioners very 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. clviii. 21. EDWIN SANDYS. IO/ properly refused, 1 but Hutton's share in that refusal was, three years afterwards, made one of Sandys' articles of accusation under the head of " malice prepense." Sissons languished long in prison, kept there by Sandys, and would probably have remained there till his death but for the humane interference of Lord Burghley, who wrote to Sandys, suggesting that he should petition the queen for his release, as otherwise his detention would be attributed to spite. 2 The cheeks of the archbishop ought to have tingled with shame at having to be reminded by a layman of so .obvious a Christian duty as the forgiveness of injuries. This scandal was probably one of the causes which, made Sandys desirous of resigning his archbishopric, though the reason he assigned for that step was the demand made by the queen for the manor of South- well, the best belonging to the see. 3 His conduct in making Secretary Davison, tried before the Privy Council for unduly executing the warrant for the execution of Mary, the queen's scapegoat, has been severely, but deservedly, censured by historians. It might have been supposed, that Sandys, with his disputes with his two deans, and the Sissons affair, had quite enough quarrels and lawsuits to satisfy .even his litigious spirit. But this was far from being the case, for he entered with unimpaired vigour into a bitter controversy with Tobias Matthew, who had succeeded Whittingham in the Deanery of Durham. Obnoxious to the people of Yorkshire for his par- simony and quarrelsome disposition, he retired to Southwell, where he spent the closing years of his life, and where he died on July 10, 1588, only two days before the Spanish Armada finally set sail for the 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. clix. 22. March 16, 1582-3. 2 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. clxx. 104. Date, 1584. 3 Lansdowne MSS., 36 (24). Date, November 24, 1582. 108 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. invasion of England. Had he lived but ten days longer, how fervently would he have sung his "Nunc dimittis " as he heard of the final overthrow of Romish hopes ! NICHOLAS BULLINGHAM. 1511-1576. BISHOP OF LINCOLN, 1560 ; WORCESTER, 1571. BISHOP N. BULLINGHAM was a native of Worcester, and was educated at Oxford, where he was Fellow of All Souls in 1536, and graduated as B.C.L. in 1541. In 1547, he was appointed chaplain to Archbishop Cranmer, received a prebend of Lincoln, and was elected proctor in Convocation, and, in the reign of Edward VI., became Archdeacon of Lincoln and Vicar-general of the diocese. In 1551 he was placed on a commission of heretical inquiry, but the acces- sion of Mary caused him to escape to the Continent to save his life. On January 21, 1561, he was consecrated Bishop of Lincoln, and had his archdeaconry restored to him, and soon afterwards held a remarkable ordi- nation for the primate, when he laid his hands on 155 deacons and priests. He was much employed in the work of the Church ; he assisted in drawing up the Thirty-nine Articles, in devising the Advertise- ments, and translating the Bishops' Bible, his portion consisting of the Canonical Epistles and the Revela- tion. He was also a gaoler of the Romish divines, among whom was Gilbert Bourne, Bishop of Bath and Wells. On one occasion two of his prisoners escaped, and he had to sue the Crown for a special pardon. 1 1 Rymer's " Fcedera," December 24, 1560. JOHN JEWEL. ICQ In 1566 he officially visited King's College, Cam- bridge, 1 and in 1568 issued a pastoral for collections to be made in his diocese for the religious refugees from France and Flanders. 2 On January 18, 1571, he became Bishop of Worcester. Of the discharge of his episcopal functions we learn from his epitaph, no very reliable source, that he was " A painful preacher of the truth." He died in debt, leaving a widow and seven children without any pro- vision for their support, and a petition was presented to the Privy Council, with what result we know not, to pray the queen to forego her claims, amounting to 295, as otherwise, pathetically said the petition, " we are withoutt all comforte and meanes to live." 3 The chief causes of this indebtedness he owed 1224 12s. 6d., and had but 1052 us. 6d were taxation for lance-money, firstfruits, furnishing three episcopal residences, and reparations and dilapida- tions, together with " his great housekeeping," espe- cially on " the Queene's Ma tie being in Wostershere." Bishop Bullingham died April 1 8, 1576. He had been twice married, " in God's fear," says his tomb- stone. JOHN JEWEL. 1522-1571. BISHOP OF SALISBURY, 1560. BISHOP JEWEL was born at Buden in the parish of Berrynarbor, near Ilfracombe, Devonshire, of an ancient but poor family. He received his early 1 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xxxix. 14, p. 267. 2 Ibid., vol. xlvi. 37, p. 307. 3 Ibid., vol. cviii. 45, 46, p. 524. IIO LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. education at Barnstaple, and in 1535 was entered at Merton College, Oxford, where he was a post- master, Doctor Parkhurst, afterwards Bishop of Norwich, being his tutor. At the end of four years he migrated to Corpus, of which college he became a scholar and, after taking his degree of B.A. in 1540, fellow and lecturer. He was subsequently appointed Public Orator of the University and Rector of Sunningwell, Berkshire, in 1551. The greatness of his parts when little more than a child drew from his astonished tutor the exclama- tion, " Surely Paul's Cross will one day ring of this boy ! " a prediction hereafter amply fulfilled. Though at that early age he was deeply imbued with Protestant principles, his pure life and gentle disposition endeared him to his opponents, and his college dean, an ardent Romanist, once remarked, " I should love thee, Jewel, if thou wert not a Zuinglian." On the accession of Mary, Jewel, to save his life, abjured his Protestantism, and subscribed divers Romish tenets against which he had formerly preached, but which, as he soon showed, he still believed ; for having made his escape to Frankfort in the autumn of 1555, he at once repudiated his late recantation at the time of divine worship. In the angry dissensions which arose about the Liturgy among the English exiles there, he acted the part of a peacemaker, directing their zeal against popery, which he regarded as the common enemy of all true Christians. From Frankfort he removed to Strasburg, and from thence in 1556 to Zurich. He then made a tour in Italy, visiting Padua and other places interesting to a scholar. The death of Queen Mary brought him back to England, which he reached in time to take part in the discussion with the Romish divines at Westminster in March, 1559. "An useless conference, and one JOHN JEWEL. Ill which indeed can hardly be considered as such," l was the opinion he gave of it to his friend Peter Martyr. The bad faith, scurrility, shuffling, and excessive ignorance shown by the Romanists occasioned his angry contempt, but the task of answering their arguments devolved on Home. In the autumn of 1559 he was on a commission for visiting the West of England for the purpose of establishing Protestantism. He found the people were disposed to it, though incredibly superstitious and ignorant, but the clergy horribly vile, especially those belonging to the cathedrals. On January 21, 1560, he was consecrated Bishop of Salisbury. The appointment was in a measure forced upon him, and four days after the issuing of the conge d'elire he expressed to Peter Martyr his positive determination not to accept such a " burden," as he called it, for which his inexperience of the world and his inaptitude for business disqualified him. 2 But there were other and greater reasons, for in reality Jewel was a Puritan, and held very cheap things which those in power highly valued, and which he foresaw were likely to be features of the Anglican Church. No language could be more contemptuous than that which he employed to describe those things which were supposed to be retained in the Ornaments Rubric. The whole question of ritual, or, as he termed it, "the scenic apparatus of divine worship," was in itself a matter but to be " laughed at," and of surprise that any Protestant should deem it worth serious thought, " as if the Christian religion could not exist without something tawdry." These " fooleries," as he called them, were but of consequence in proportion as the minds that received them were weak. The vestments were " theatrical habits " and " ridiculous trifles ; " the cope was " a comic dress," the crucifix 1 "Zurich Letters," i. p. 16. 2 Ibid., p. 48. 112 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. " that little silver cross of ill-omened origin ; " the " linen surplice " was " a vestige of error " that could only disturb " feeble minds," but which on that very account ought, if possible, to be removed with other " rubbish." This he sincerely desired, and for it earnestly laboured. He had not been responsible for the ceremonial yoke having been placed upon the neck of the Church, which, as it would appear from an expression in his letter to Peter Martyr, had been done by the laity. "We are not consulted," he wrote while the Liturgy was under consideration, and by the pronoun he meant the Protestant divines. Yet for this offence and such it was to him he would not break up the unity of the Church of England, and play into the hands of its enemies by hindering the free course of the gospel through insisting on things which he did not regard as essential. Therefore he finally determined to accept the bishopric. He also consented to wear the episcopal dress though disapproving of it, and sub- mitted to the ceremonies used at his consecration, while at the same time he regarded them as silly if not worse. For the employment of " ornaments " in the worship of God, Jewel felt only amused contempt. Engaged to argue against the use of the crucifix in churches, he wrote thus of its defenders, "I smile when I think with what grave and solid reasons they will defend their little cross." But he wrote more seriously when there seemed a prospect of its restora- tion, and he was prepared to resign his bishopric rather than yield, 1 the ground of his objection being that "the ignorant and superstitious multitude" were " in the habit of paying adoration to this idol above all others." But Jewel was now called to a task far more con- genial, and indeed much more important, than 1 " Zurich Letters," i. p. 68. JOHN JEWEL. 113 arguing against crucifixes. He was fully conscious that the great end of the ministry was the preaching of the gospel, and by the aid of the Holy Spirit impregnating the souls of men with the Word of Life, and if he turned aside to deal with the " fooleries " of ceremonies, ornaments, habits, and gestures, it was but because, and so far as, they interfered with and hindered the progress of truth. No wearer of the rochet and chimere ever possessed a loftier, and yet a more tolerant, contempt for these " ridiculous trifles," as he called them. They were, at the best, but the baubles of children which would be put away when manhood was reached. The soul that was built up in knowledge and piety had, if it were sane, an imperishable safeguard against these things. For a man, because he claimed to be a descendant of the Apostles, to wear a distinctive vesture of satin and lawn, was in his opinion a practice grotesquely contemptible. Yet in spite of such blemishes he was satisfied with the status of the Anglican Church, since it possessed every security for the maintenance of truth. "The doctrine," he wrote, " is everywhere most pure ; but as to ceremonies and maskings there is a little too much foolery." 1 To maintain that doctrine against all assailants, especially against Romanists, was henceforth his work. The Council of Trent, first assembled in 1545, was still in session, its protracted meetings having out- lasted four popes. In that assembly Elizabeth had refused to allow the English to be represented, and Pius IV., exasperated at this independent attitude, and also at her putting forth a Liturgy without his sanction, caused one Scipio, a Venetian gentleman with whom Jewel had formed an acquaintance in Italy, to write to him a letter expressing his surprise at the obstinacy of the English in refusing to assist, 1 " Zurich Letters," i. p. 55. 114 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. and his displeasure at their setting up a new religion without his approbation. To that letter Jewel at once replied by his "Epistola ad Scipionem," published in 1559. His answer was complete and crushing. He showed that the term " general " as applied to the Council was a misnomer, since many churches besides that of England were not represented at it. He further pointed out that, even if it were what it styled itself, it would be absurd to suppose that those who had already been openly condemned for heresy, and that without a hearing, should come there as criminals. He declared, in conclusion, that the real object of the Council was not to reform religion, but to per- petuate abuses, a statement not controverted. In this treatise he had but dealt with the outworks of the question ; he now proceeded to attack the citadel. On March 17, 1560, he preached his celebrated sermon at St. Paul's Cross on i Cor. xi. 23, in which he attacked the Romish doctrine of Transub- stantiation, challenging its supporters to prove the truth of it either from Scripture, the Fathers, or the General Councils. The sermon was divided into twenty-seven propositions, which embraced the main points of difference regarding that dogma and the errors connected therewith, and outlined the famous work which he published two years afterwards, the '" Apology for the Church of England." In that treatise he justified the position, both in doctrines and practice, of the reformed Church of England, and with great ability and erudition trans- ferred the charge of innovation from it to the Church of Rome. The merits of the work were universally recognised. It was written in Latin, but was translated into English by Lady Bacon, wife of the Lord Keeper, in 1564, the year after the Council of Trent had closed its sittings, when a number of JOHN JEWEL. 115 opponents stood forth in defence of the Roman tenets. The chief of these were two ex-Protestants, Thomas Dorman and Thomas Harding, of whom the former was dealt with by Nowell, Dean of St. Paul's, and the latter by Jewel himself. The con- troversy was bitter and prolonged, and excited the deepest interest not only among theologians and scholars, but in the world at large. For his adver- sary's character and his arguments Jewel expressed himself with supreme contempt. He had been, he said, " a most active preacher of the Gospel," but was then " a wretched apostate." For Jewel to apply such a term to another may seem somewhat incon- sistent, since he himself was exposed to the same reproach. Yet, between his apostasy, if such it may be termed, and that of Harding, there was as wide a difference as between Peter's denial of Christ and Judas's betrayal of Him. Harding's " Answere to the Apologie " produced from Jewel " A Replie," which was immediately followed by his antagonist's " Confutation of the Apologie." This made the bishop resume his pen, and he wrote his " Defence of the Apology," a treatise second in importance and value but to the " Apology " itself. It was addressed to the queen, as Harding's treatise had also been, 1 and on being pub- lished in 1567, copies were ordered by Archbishop Parker to be placed in every parish church in his province, and the Earl of Warwick wrote to the arch- bishop requesting him to make a further order that every minister should be compelled to possess one. 2 Jewel's opinions of the Romanists were, it is to be observed, uncharitably severe. Their prelates and clergy were "oily, shaven, portly hypocrites," and "wretches." The pope was the "hangman of the 1 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xliv. 12, p. 300. 2 "Parker Correspondence," pp. 319, 417. Il6 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. Church ; " Romanism was " the man of perdition ; " and all its defenders were " monsters." When con- gregational singing was started in the London churches, and six thousand persons were heard at St. Paul's Cross singing praises to God, Jewel remarked of the circumstance, " it sadly annoys the mass-priests and the devil." White, Bishop of Win- chester, he tells us, " died of rage," and he records with much glee the vexation felt by that prelate when the boys laughed at him in the streets. 1 Yet in himself Jewel was the mildest and most gentle of men, as he was one of the most beneficent, the Romanists being the only persons to whom he was otherwise. The publication in England in 1570 of the bull of Pope Pius V. dethroning Elizabeth and absolving her subjects from their allegiance, once more aroused his anti-papal zeal. The news that Felton had affixed the bull to the gates of the Bishop of London's palace reached him as he was preaching in his cathedral. By a strange coincidence his subject that day was the revelation and destruction of the Man of Sin, mentioned in the second chapter of St. Paul's first Epistle to the Thessalonians, and while proceeding with his sermon a copy of the bull was placed in his hand. He paused and read it carefully, and then with wonderful promptitude and equal ability de- nounced and exposed it as the production of Antichrist. This address was published at once under the title of " View of a Seditious Bull." The attitude of Bishop Jewel towards the Puritans demands attention. That one who disliked the vestments, and would have voted for their abolition, should have rigidly enforced their use in his diocese, seems at first sight to be strangely inconsistent. In point of fact, however, it was not so, for he took a broad and luminous view of the whole question, which 1 "Zurich Letters," i. p. 71. JOHN JEWEL. Il/ resolved itself into one of obedience to constituted authority. The ritual question was in itself one of absolute indifference either way. " God's name be blessed, the religion of Christ may stand both with and without these things," he had written in his " Defence of the Apology." But the matter received a new complexion when a thing in itself admitted to be unessential was ordained by authority, for then it was binding on every Chris- tian who valued the unity of the Church and the preservation of gospel truth. The rule for the conduct of divine worship is that " all things be done decently and in order." But there can be no order without authority, and that authority is not to be taken from the [fancies of individuals, but in a source which possessed a recognised and inherent right, and that source was the Sovereign. Not for a moment, however, would a mind like Jewel's have admitted the right of members of a National Church, which possessed the essentials of a true doctrine, a scriptural liturgy, and the right administration of the Sacraments, to have separated themselves on such small questions as the surplice and the cap or attitudes and postures. It was no private question, where the strong-minded brother should yield to the weak conscience of his fellow Christian, but a matter which involved the unity and peace of the Church, and in fact the truth itself. For once to allow private judgment to interfere in the non-essentials of worship would be to involve public worship itself in disorder and tumult. These considerations determined his public conduct as the ruler of a diocese. Thus in 1565 he refused institution to his friend and subsequent biographer, Lawrence Humphrey, who had been presented to a benefice in his diocese by Bishop Home, for his refusal to wear the vestments. Writing to the Pri- mate asking his advice in the matter, he expressed Il8 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. his own displeasure at what he terms the "vain contention about apparel." * To one of Jewel's intellectual calibre, it was shock- ing that a man like Humphrey should allow an empty ceremony, a dress or the wearing of the surplice to be an obstacle to preaching the gospel, and he told him plainly that an obstinate resistance to established ceremonies would be justly punished by depriva- tion. 2 He persisted in his refusal to institute, and the principles which determined his conduct on that occasion influenced it to the end of his life. In 1571 (August) Jewel, who had already signed both the Articles and Canons, was joined with Arch- bishop Parker and Grindal, Bishop of London, in a commission to execute a special injunction issued by the queen to the archbishop for enforcing uniformity. What part, if any, he took does not appear, but the fact alone illustrates his sentiments on the question of conformity, and also on the royal supremacy in ecclesiastical causes. When Whitgift published, in 1572, his " Answer to Cartwright's Admonition," Jewel lent him his power- ful aid, and a paper written by him was inserted in that work, in which in unsparing language he rebuked the frivolous objections and the fractious demeanour of the Puritans. They were, he said, the " children of disobedience," in whose hearts foolishness was bound up, and needed the rod of correction to expel it. 3 Translated into plain language, Bishop Jewel would have deprived, and probably also fined and imprisoned, the nonconforming clergy. These outspoken utterances earned for him the hatred of that party ; his services to religion and Protestantism were forgotten, and after his death 1 Strype's " Annals," I. ii. 153 : Bishop Jewel to Archbishop Parker, December 25, 1565. 2 "Life ot Bishop Jewel," by Rev. C. Le Bas, p. 156. 3 Proverbs, xxii. 15. JOHN JEWEL. 119 Cartwright, in his "Reply to Whitgift," made a vindictive attack upon his memory. In general ecclesiastical matters Bishop Jewel's theological learning was of great service, and he was much consulted by Archbishop Parker, especially on the subject of marriage with a deceased wife's sister. On that vexed question his opinion may be said to have ruled the judgment of the Church of England to the present day. His argument was to the effect, that by analogy such marriages were unscriptural, and was thus expressed, "God Himself would have us to expound one degree by another. So, likewise, in this case, albeit I be not forbidden by plain words to marry my wife's sister, yet am I forbidden to do so by other words, which by exposition are plain enough. For when God commands me I shal not mary my brother's wife, it follows directly by the same, that he forbids me to mary my wife's sister. For between one man and two sisters, and one woman and two brothers, is like analogy or proportion, which is my judgment in this case. And other such like ought to be taken for a rule. And, therefore, the Rabbins of the Jews have expressly forbidden divers degrees by this rule, which God by plain words forbad not." x Yet, though Jewel thus laid down the law upon the subject, he does not seem to have regarded it as one altogether beyond the scope of legislation by lawful authority, for thus he wrote to the primate respecting the case of one in his diocese who had married the sister of his deceased wife. " Chafin that hath married two sisters, upon his appeal from your Grace and me, hangeth still before the delegates, and, as much as I can perceive, is not likely to take any great hurt at their hands. I would they would decree it were lawful to marry two sisters, so should the 1 Strype's " Life of Parker," iii. 57. 120 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. world be out of doubt. As now it is past away in a mockery." l The public reputation of Bishop Jewel rests upon his literary merits as one of the greatest controversial writers that have ever appeared, but within the narrow limits of his own diocese he was eminently distinguished as a preacher. The chief function of a bishop, in his opinion, was, that he should be a pastor and teacher, and such was he. On horseback he visited the towns and villages of his diocese, preaching and catechizing as he went. This was his regular work which occupied him to the very end of his life. " A bishop," he used to say " should die in the pulpit." He verified his own words ; for being engaged to preach at Laycock, a village in his diocese, he insisted, though struck by mortal sickness, on keeping his appointment. Accordingly, he went, despite all remonstrance. The sermon finished its text was Galatians v. 16 he mounted his horse and rode to Monkton Farleigh, where he took to his bed, from which he never rose. He died September 23, 1571, and was buried in the middle of the choir of Salisbury Cathedral. After his death it was rumoured that in his last hours he had renounced Protestantism and professed a desire to be reconciled to the Church of Rome. It was further declared, and with equal truth, that the devil came to him in the form of a large black cat, and that the dying prelate had much conversation with the fiend. The character of Bishop Jewel was truly apostolical : apt to teach, gentle yet firm and wise in his spiritual government, hospitable, generous, courteous, and sympathetic. His correspondence with his old friend Peter Martyr sets the qualities of his mind and his 1 "Parker Correspondence," p. 176. June 15, 1563. THOMAS YOUNG. 121 heart in the most favourable light, and constitutes his best memoir. In his own living most abstemious, he kept an open and bountiful table for his friends, and his doors were always open to the poor. To friendless and needy scholars he was a liberal patron, and his palace at Salisbury was a home where poor youths of humble parentage, but good parts, were trained under his eye, and maintained at his own charge. Besides this he contributed to the support of several students at the Universities, amongst whom was Richard Hooker, author of the " Ecclesiastical Polity." THOMAS YOUNG. 1507-1568. BISHOP OF ST. DAVID'S, 1560 ; ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, 1561. ARCHBISHOP YOUNG was born at Pembroke, and educated at Broadgate Hall, now Pembroke College,. Oxford, where he graduated in civil law, and became Principal of Broadgate Hall in 1542, and was also made Precentor of St. David's. As one of the chapter of that cathedral, he gained an unenviable notoriety for his persecution of Bishop Ferrar and for his sacrilegious spoliations, 1 but these having already been mentioned in the memoir of Bishop Meyrick need no further notice. He was a decided Protestant, and in the reign of Mary was one of the six divines who defended the Reformation against the Romanists. At any rate, he assisted it by his presence, though he seems to have avoided an active part ; and Burnet tells us that he " went away." 2 1 See " Life of Bishop Meyrick," p. 96. 2 " Reformation," ed. Pocock, ii. 423. 122 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. During the reign of Mary he resided at Wesel. Early in the next reign he was placed on a commission to visit the Welsh dioceses, and on January 21, 1560, was consecrated to the See of St. David's, and a year afterwards was translated to the Archbishopric of York, for which Parker had recommended him as being " witty, prudent, temperate, and manlike." 1 He had formerly refused this great post, unless he should "be thereunto enforced upon his allegiance," and it would for the sake of his reputation have been better for him to have stuck to that refusal, for he made but an indifferent archbishop. In 1564 he visited his province. As Lord President of the North he excited the furious hostility of the Romanists, who, in 1565, raised a conspiracy against him. Nor was he popular with the rest of his flock, and a petition against him was presented to the Privy Council. He treated it, however, with great contempt, remarking that he knew how such things were " got up," 2 by people " going about from church to church." In this matter his treatment of his former diocesan enabled him to speak from experience. As has been already mentioned, he robbed the cathedral of St. David's of its valuables, and he imitated that conduct by stripping the lead from the roof of the hall of the archiepiscopal house at York, 3 worth a thousand pounds, which he handed over to a great nobleman to whom he was under considerable obligations. In 1567 ill health compelled him to require a suffragan, and Barnes was appointed by the queen. Archbishop Young died on June 26, 1568, leaving a widow and several children. 1 " Parker Correspondence," p. 123. 2 Lansdowne MSS., 32091, 55, ff. 211. 3 " Briefe View," p. no. RICHARD DAVIES. 123 RICHARD DAVIES. 1509-1581. BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH, 1560; ST. DAVID'S, 1561. BISHOP RICHARD DAVIES was born at Plas y Person, North Wales, and was the son of Davydd ap Gronw, curate of Gyffin, near Conway. He was of New Inn, Oxford, and having been ordained a secular priest, was presented by Edward VI. to the Vicarage of Burnham, Bucks., with which he held the Rectory of Maidsmorton in the same county. An exile under Mary, he was made Bishop of St. Asaph by her successor, and consecrated January 21, 1560, his former benefices, of which he had been deprived, being restored to him, together with a Prebend of St. Asaph and the Rectory of Llantsant- fraid, all which he was permitted to hold " in commendam," owing to the poverty of his see. 1 In the August succeeding his consecration, he visited his diocese, and in due course sent to the Government a report 2 of its condition, which, from a religious point of view, was as sad as could well be. The people were ignorant and vicious, and the clergy quite incompetent to minister to them. In all the diocese there were but five divines who could preach, the rest being fit for nothing, mere cumberers of the spiritual vineyard. Of these incapables, two, and they were prebendaries, were mere boys, one still at his grammar ; three were undergraduates at Oxford, while two, though holding benefices, had never been 1 Rymer's " Foedera." 2 This report is given in full in Rev. D. R. Thomas's " History of St. Asaph" (1874). 124 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. ordained. One great cause of the crass ignorance that prevailed in his diocese was declared by the bishop to be the want of Bibles in the Welsh language, and another that divine service was read in English, a language not understood by the people. To remedy this, Parliament, in 1563, enacted that the Bible and Prayer-book should be translated into Welsh, and copies placed in every church and chapel of the Principality before March I, I56/. 1 The four Welsh bishops and the Bishop of Hereford 2 were entrusted with the work, and, though not necessarily expected to be themselves the translators, they were to see that it was properly performed. No money, however, was voted for the expenses connected with it, though, if it were not finished by the appointed time, each of the bishops was liable to be fined 40. The work devolved on Bishop Richard Davies y who, indeed, was the only one of the five capable of executing it, but he was at that time similarly employed in translating the portion assigned to him in the Bishops' Bible, consisting of the Books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and the First and Second of Kings. He therefore availed himself of the services of William Salisbury, an eminent Welsh antiquary, who had, in 1551, translated the Epistles and Gospels into Welsh. By their joint labours the Welsh Prayer- book and New Testament were finished, but the Old Testament was not translated into Welsh till twenty years afterwards. Some time previous to his entering on this important work, Bishop Davies had been translated to the see of St. David's, the congt d'ttire being issued on May 21, 1561. In 1570 he presented a report of his diocese to the 1 " Statutes at Large," ed. Ruffhead, ii. p. 568. 2 John Scory. RICHARD DAVIES. 125 Privy Council, which shows very clearly the unsatis- factoriness of compulsion in matters of conscience. Outward conformity, especially among the better classes, was almost universal, no person of any con- sequence refusing to come to ^church or take the sacrament. But " a great nombre " were " slowe and cold in the true service of God. Some careles for any religion, and some that wysshe the romyshe relygyon agayne." It is one thing to destroy, another to build up, and there was little or nothing in the Anglican Church in Wales at that time to recommend it to the people. The ministry, as the bishop pointed out, was both inadequate and incom- petent. The livings, which had once been well endowed, had been seized at the Reformation and made royal impropriations, their lands leased out to laymen, who, retaining the chief part of the revenues, put four or five benefices into the charge of some utterly incompetent clergyman to serve them, and that at a starvation salary. It was obvious that it was but a very small modi- cum of spiritual attention that the poor clergyman could give to each of the five parishes he had to serve on the Sunday. The bishop described the situation with graphic brevity. " The fermors," he wrote, " will not geve competent wages, but shyft with a priest that shall come thyther galloping from another parishe, which for such paines shall have x\s a yere, iij or iiij; the best." How the poor curate " shyfted " on a salary of 2 a year and 4 the best, especially if he had a wife and children to support, is beyond conjecture. The result of this was that the pulpits in Wales were practically silent, for a man qualified to preach would not accept a salary on which he could not live. A sermon, even once a quarter, was a rarity, and the celebrated John Penry, who was a contemporary of Bishop Davies, and lived in his diocese, declared that 126 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. in his time for one church in Wales that had a quarterly sermon there were twenty that had none from one year's end to another. 1 It should occasion no surprise that such ignorance of religion should lead to every kind of vice and immorality. Such, indeed, was the case, and the bishop reported two hundred persons in his diocese excommunicated for their vicious lives, and that there would have been many more if the writ "de excommunicato capiendo " had been duly served by the sheriff. Bishop Davies professed to be anxious to reform " this dysorder of Curattes," as he called it, and would have been glad to have sequestered some part of the fruits of the benefices for the payment of preachers, but, since they were royal impropriations, he could not do so without incurring prczmunire, and of these impropriations there were a large number in his diocese. 2 If, however, others, notably his successor in the see, may be believed, Bishop Davies, in spite of his official preachments against the holders of impropriations and the miserable stipends they paid their vicars, was to the full as bad as they were. He himself had many impropriate parsonages, which were occupied by ignorant and inefficient curates, because men properly qualified would not accept the pittance which he offered them. His successor, Middleton, further reported to the Government the testimony of the brother-in-law of Bishop Davies, that " he never gave any liveinge w'hin his own gifte, nor admitted any to other men's gift w'hout consideration : alleaginge he could not other- wise have lived." 3 This charge is, to a degree, 1 "Diocesan Histories: St. David's," pp. 155, 156. 2 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. Ixvi. 26 : Bishop R. Davies to the Privy Council, January 25, 1569-70. 8 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. clxii. 29 ; vol. clxv. I. EDMUND GUEST. I2/ corroborated by others, who write of him as a great dilapidator of the lands of his see. Whether with just cause or without, he had not a few enemies, one of whom, Fabian Philips, a member of the Council of the Marches of Wales, articled against him to the Privy Council, for the gross immorality prevalent in his diocese. The bishop admitted the fact, but pointed to the number of persons doing penance in the churches of his diocese " with white sheete or blanket," as proof that he was not remiss in his ecclesiastical censures. He died on November 7, 1581, leaving a widow and children. He was a co-founder of Carmarthen school. EDMUND GUEST. I5I7-I577. BISHOP OF ROCHESTER, 1560 ; SALISBURY, 1571. BISHOP GUEST was born at Northallerton, Yorkshire,, and educated at York Grammar School, Eton, and King's College, Cambridge, where he was elected in 1536, and having taken his B.A. degree in 1541, became fellow and vice-provost. Early in life he was a distinguished advocate of the Reformation, and in 1548 published his famous treatise against the Romish Mass, a work which so established his eminent fitness for controversy on that subject, that in the following year he was chosen to argue on the Protestant side against Transub- stantiation before certain commissioners from London, of whom Bishop Ridley was one. Judgment was given against the Romanists. In 1551 he received the royal licence to preach,. 128 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. but nothing more is known of his doings in the short reign of Edward. He remained in England during the reign of Mary, but at considerable personal risk, for he was continually being sought for, and was frequently compelled to change his hiding- place. Soon after the accession of Elizabeth he was appointed by the Government to be one of the eight Protestant divines who, on March 30, 1559, held a discussion with some Roman Catholic bishops and clergy on matters of doctrine. But he was chiefly conspicuous for the large share which, in conse- quence of the sickness of Parker, he took in the revision of the Liturgy. Indeed, he was by far the most prominent member of the committee to whom that task had been entrusted, as is shown by the com- mencement of his letter to Cecil, to whom he re- turned the Prayer-book after it had been revised. In that letter he enclosed a paper of reasons 1 for the alterations he had made in the Liturgy, which, as is well known, were all anti-ritualistic. He was placed on Cecil's list of unbeneficed divines, who were to be promoted to bishoprics or deaneries when such became vacant. Having waited patiently, but in vain, for eight months, and being without any means of support, he overcame his " shamefastness," as he called it, and applied for the Deanery of Worcester, which, though not then vacant, he hoped, and believed, would shortly become so. 2 He did not obtain it, but the queen a few weeks afterwards gave him the Archdeaconry of Canterbury and the Rectory of Cliffe, and on March 24, 1560, he was consecrated Bishop of Rochester, and at the same time made almoner to the queen, with permission to hold his archdeaconry and benefice "in com- menftam." A few months after his consecration he 1 Printed in Dugclale's "Life of Bishop Guest," p. 142. 2 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. vi. 32. August 31, 1559. EDMUND GUEST. I2Q was recommended by Archbishop Parker for the See of Durham, but it was given to Pilkington. Though nothing is known respecting the labours, if there were any, of Bishop Guest as the ruler of a diocese, yet he was largely employed in the eccle- siastical work of his time. For, besides the part he had taken in the revision of the Prayer-book, he assisted the archbishop in drawing up the Thirty- nine Articles, in the compilation of the Advertise- ments, and the translation of the Bishops' Bible. In the last of these tasks he had for his portion the Psalms, and, to judge by his letter to Parker, he proceeded in it with very commendable caution, the main principles which guided him in his work being " never to alter the translation but where it gave an occasion of an error," and " the avoiding the offence that might arise to the people on diverse transla- tions." l As to the Book of Advertisements, though he was one of its signatories, he is not mentioned in Arch- bishop Parker's letter to Cecil as one of the " devisers/' but he was probably consulted, and his action in the matter quite accorded with his former opinions as to the lawfulness of the use of things indifferent. The chief interest, however, attaching to the life of Bishop Guest -lies in the assistance he gave to Parker in drawing up the Thirty- nine Articles of 1563. We learn from a letter of his addressed to Cecil, that the Twenty-eighth Article, or rather the clause in it which he particularises, was of his " owne pennynge," for it had substantially been in the Articles of 1553, which were compiled by Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, and others. This important clause taught, that " the body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner." The Articles having passed through Convocation, 1 "Parker Correspondence," p. 250. I3O LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. but failing to receive legislative sanction, were in 1566 once more submitted to Parliament, and it was on that occasion that he wrote the letter just mentioned, in which he put an exposition on his own clause, which the highest authority 1 has declared to be contradictory of its meaning. In 1571, just after Convocation had finally passed them, and they were about to be submitted to the queen, he wrote another letter to Cecil in behalf of, as he phrased it, "unitie in sound and true doctrine," in which he recommended alterations, not only in his own clause, but also in other parts of the book which related to the doctrine of the Real Presence in the Sacrament. After stating his reason for the in- sertion of the word " only " in the Twenty-eighth Article, which was, "to take awaye all grose & sensible presence," he gives the following reason for its removal. " To avoyde offence & contention y e worde onelye maye be well left out, as not nedefull." The person he names as being offended, and for whose sake he thought that " if this word onely were put out of y e booke it were y e best," 2 was Richard Cheyney, Bishop of Gloucester, who held the doctrine of Consubstantiation. Another alteration he contended for, together with his reason for doing so, will best be given in his own words. " It foloweth in y e booke, But y e meane whereby ye bodye of Christ is receaved & eaten in y c supper is faithe. If this word profitably were put hereunto in this sort, But y e meane wherebye ye body of Christ is profitably receaved & eaten in ye supper is faithe, then shuld the occasion of this question, whether y e evill do receave Christis body 1 The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. See/w/, p. 133. 2 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. Ixxviii. 37 (May 15, 1571). This letter has no signature, and is not described in the " Calendar " as the work of Guest ; but Dean Goode, in his " Supplement to the Eucharist," ascribes it to him on the strength of the resemblance of the handwriting to other letters which are signed by the bishop. EDMUND GUEST. 131 in y e sacrament, bycause they lack faithe (vviche riseth of y e forsaied wordes & causeth miche strife) shuld be quyte taken awaye, for that hereby is not denyed the unfrutefull receavynge of Christis body without faithe but y e frutefull onely affirmed/' Bishop Guest also objected to the Twenty-ninth Article, which teaches that the wicked do not eat the body of Christ in the use of the Lord's Supper. It had been added by Archbishop Parker, and against it Guest made the following strenuous protest. " If this article be confirmed and authorized by y e Ouenes grace it will cause muche busynes, bycause it is quyte contrarie to y e Scripture & to y e doctrine of y e fathers, for it is certain that Judas as evill as he was did receave Christis body, bycause Christ saied unto him take, eat, this is my bodye." 1 Notwithstanding these objections, Guest signed the Thirty-nine Articles, though one of them he had but a few days before declared to be " quyte con- trarie to y e Scripture." Though Guest's gloss on his own clause in the Twenty-eighth Article is not to be regarded by those who subscribe it as its legal interpretation, 2 yet it is not irrelevant to consider what were his real opinions as to the doctrine of the real presence of Christ's body in the Lord's Supper. When the. Bill for confirming the Thirty-nine Articles was brought into the House of Lords in 1566, Bishop Cheyney protested against the clause in the 1 The dogma of Consubstantiati on, which Bishop Cheyney is said to have held, "does not," writes Bishop Harold Browne (" Exposition of Thirty-nine Articles," pp. 677, 678), "imply a change in the sub- stance of the elements. The bread remains bread and the wine remains wine ; but (it teaches) that with, and by means of, the consecrated elements, the true natural Body and Blood of Christ are communicated to the recipients." 2 The Judicial Committee of Privy Council, in the case of Sheppard v. Bennet, declared that it was the Article, and not the comments on it in Guest's letter, that were binding on the clergy and the court. LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. Twenty-eighth respecting the body of Christ being given, taken and eaten in the Sacrament " only after an heavenly and spiritual manner." On that occasion, as we learn from Bishop Jewel, " he boldly declared his approval of Luther's opinion respecting the Eucharist," and was the only one of the bishops who did so. l In the course of the debate, and in the absence of Bishop Guest, he quoted him as holding similar views to his own, which led to a controversy between them, and Guest wrote thus to Cecil in his own defence. 2 " I suppose you have hard how y e busshop of Glocestre, found him selve greeved with y e placynge of this adverbe onely in this article, The bodye of Christ is gyven taken & eaten in y e supper after an heavenly and spuall maner onely, bycause it did take awaye y e presence of Christis bodye in y e sacrament & p'vately noted me to take his part therein, & yesterdaye in myn absence more playnely vouched me for y e same, where as betweene him & me I told him plainelye that this word onelye in ye foresaid article did not exclude y e presence of Christis body fro the Sacrament but onely y e grossnes and senseble- nes in the receavinge thereof : ffor I saied unto him though he tooke Christes bodye in his hand, receaved it with his mouthe, & that corporally, naturally, reallye, substantially & carnally, as y e doctors doo write, yet did he not for all that see it, feale it, smelle it, nor tast it. "And therefore I told him I wold speake against him herein, & y e rather bycause y e Article was of myn owne pennynge and yet I wold not for all that denye therebye anythinge that I had spoken for y e presence. And this was y e some of our talke. And this that I saied is so true by all sortes of men that even D. Hardinge writeth y e same as it appeareth most 1 " Zurich Letters," i. 185. 2 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xli. 51 (1566, Dec. 22). EDMUND GUEST. 133 evidently by his wordes reported in the bushope of Salisburies booke which be thees. * Then we maye saie in y e Sacrament his verye body is present yea really ; that is to saye in deede, substantially that is to say in substance, and corporally, carnally* by y e wich wordes is ment that his verye bodye his verye fleshe his verye humane nature is therein, not after corporall carnell or natural wise but invisible un- speakable supernaturally spually, divinely, & by wayne unto him onely knowen. This I thought good to write to your honour for myn owne purgation." After this it need not surprise us that Guest's opinions on the Real Presence were much misunder- stood, and that while Romanists like Dorman declared him to be a believer in Transubstantiation, others, such as Bishop Cheyney, should assert that he held the Lutheran dogma of Consubstantiation. In our own time, indeed, very high authority has observed of the words in his own clause, " only after a heavenly and spiritual manner," that they " do not appear to contain the words 'corporally, naturally and carnally,'" which Bishop Guest gave as their exposition, " but to exclude them." 1 In his treatise against the Privy Mass, however, he used language on his subject of a decidedly Protestant type. " These words take, eat in these wordes of y e institution of the lordes supper, take, eate thys is my bodye, be no wordes of makynge of the lordes body, but of presenting and exhibiting the same to the receavers of the ryghte supper of the lorde. So that it is full open that the prieste can nether consecrate Christes body, neyther make it." This reasoning was quite in harmony with the changes, which, as has already been mentioned, he made in the Elizabethan Prayer-book, especially such as related to the Communion. He expunged prayer 1 Judgment of Judicial Committee of the Privy Council : Sheppard v. Bennett^ p. 24. 134 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. for the dead from that office, because it seemed to make the Eucharist a sacrifice for them, and so to favour the dogma of purgatory. He omitted from the prayer of consecration the petition for the Holy Ghost to bless and sanctify the elements, on the grounds of it not being necessary, and that since it prayed that they might become Christ's body and blood, it made for " popish Transubstantiation." In the same direction was his argument against the use of the cope at the celebration of the Lord's Supper, lest it might seem to exalt that Sacrament above other means of grace, as baptizing, reading, preaching, and praying, if any other garment was used besides the surplice, and this, he said, "we must not believe." In coming to these conclusions, the Holy Scriptures were the first and main source of his reasonings. The old Fathers were next, but a long way after, and the " doctors " were, comparatively speaking, nowhere. To this effect he aptly quoted Tertullian, " That is true wich is first, y* is first wich is fro begynynge, y fc is fro begynynge, wich is fro y e apostles." Bishop Guest, having signed the Articles, was speedily preferred, and on December 5, 1571, the queen issued the congt dtlire for his election to the Bishopric of Salisbury, when he resigned the Almonership, which he had held for twelve years. His episcopate at Salisbury was, so far as we possess any knowledge of it, a blank, though he remained there nearly six years. He died on February 28, 1577, and was buried in the choir of the cathedral. He made his will on the day of his death, but he died poor, and was an ex- ception to the majority of the bishops of his time in being unmarried. GILBERT BERKELEY. 135 GILBERT BERKELEY. BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS, 1560. BISHOP BERKELEY was born, as there is reason to believe, in Lincolnshire, though Fuller gives Norfolk as his native county. Archbishop Parker in his " De Antiquitate," states him to have been educated at Cambridge, but when in 1563 that University conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, it mentioned in its records that he had graduated at Oxford in that faculty. It is probable, therefore, that he belonged to both Universities. After taking his B.D. degree he studied theology for twenty-four years. In the reign of Mary he resided at Frankfort, but apparently without taking any part in the liturgical controversy which raged in that city. He was consecrated Bishop of Bath and Wells on March 24, 1560. The queen, availing herself of the power vested in her by Parliament, stripped the see of eight of its manors, 2 and his predecessor Gilbert Bourne had, to use the bishop's phrase, so " mangled " it previously that he found himself unable to live on its insufficient revenues, and before he had held it a year wrote to Sir W. Cecil expressing his wish to resign. Having alluded to the queen's goodness in making him bishop and his desire to fulfil her expectations of his deport- ment in that office he thus lamentably proceeds " Verilie the case standeth with me so hardelie at 1 " Athense Cantabrigienses " gives 1507 as date of his birth, but Strype says he died 1581, aged 80. 2 Patent Rolls, 2 Eliz. 4. Public Record Office. 136 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. this p r sent that it were better for me to serve her highness as a poore chaplyn yn menest degree then havinge the name and place of a Bishopp to want thinges pryncipallie requysyte to the same. I meane not grate possessyon wiche I protest before God I never yet sought, but necessarie thinges for the sustentation of an honest famylie. The world ex- pecteth and o r vocation is to be hospitales, but here I am so destitute of all pvision that the verie mansyon howse is not left fre for my Residence. To conclude, if her Maiestie take not order for the redresse of the matters conteyned in my supplication wiche I send herewith, desiringe yo r honor to puse the same, I must be fayne to resigne my title of Bishopp overburdened, and to becom her Grace's poore chaplyn as in tyme past." * The supplication referred to exemplifies the injus- tice with which the Elizabethan bishops were fre- quently treated. From some of his estates, and these the best, he got no rent at all, and but a bare rent for the others, while the firstfruits and tenths were esti- mated on the full amount, and that an excessive one. Moreover, he had to pay many pensions, the Manor of Wells, for instance, being charged with annuities to the value of 300. The palace at Wells alone remained of all the episcopal residences, and every bit of land about it had been farmed out by his pre- decessor, so that he could not get even to the front door without asking leave of the tenant. The " barne yarde," the " faire greene," the " greate garden," and the " brew-house " had, moreover, all been " letten " by the rapacious Bourne. He had other troubles besides these, one of which arose from the dean of his cathedral, Dr. William Turner, a bitter Puritan, with an especial detestation of all bishops, against whom he railed, even in the cathedral pulpit and in Berkeley's presence, as 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xvi. 27. GILBERT BERKELEY. 137 " white coates, typpet gentlemen, with other wordes much more unseemlie." * Bishop Berkeley's long episcopate was marked chiefly by spoliation of his see, to which, however, he reluctantly yielded. As an instance of this, may be adduced his alienation, at the queen's request, of the valuable Manor of Banwell to Lord Henry Seymour, which was of so outrageous a nature that the Dean and Chapter refused to confirm it. 2 After his death, Bishop Aylmer, in recommending Bishop Cooper as his successor, assigned as his reason the " great ignorance " that " reigned " in that diocese " for lack of a learned man." 3 The in- ference seems clear that Bishop Berkeley's twenty- four years' study of theology bore small fruit in the spiritual instruction of his flock. For the last ten years of his life he had been physically incompetent for any episcopal work. He was, we are told, 4 a just administrator, except a large exception, indeed when his wife, an imperious and avaricious woman, made him swerve from the path of rectitude. He died at his palace on Novem- ber 2, 1581. The charge brought against him by some of his biographers of having relapsed into Romanism, is due to a passage in Strype, which in reality refers to the diocese as being " inclined to the Papal religion," but which has been quoted as though referring to the bishop. 1 Lansdowne MSS., viii. 3. Date of letter, March 23, 1563-4. 2 Calendar State Papers, vol. xcix. 15, p. 489. December 26, 1574. 3 Strype's " Life of Aylmer," p. 59. 4 " Briefe View," p. ill. 138 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. THOMAS BENTHAM. 1513-1579- BISHOP OF LlCHFIELD AND COVENTRY, 1560. BISHOP BENTHAM was born at Sherburn, Yorkshire, and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was elected a Perpetual Fellow in 1 546. He was so strong a Protestant that, though Mary had just become queen, he refused to allow incense to be used in the college chapel, or to punish the students who had absented themselves from the Romish service. For this he was ejected from his Fellowship, and went abroad, becoming preacher to the English exiles at Basle, but returned to be the chief pastor of the London Protestants. The post was perilous in the extreme, for their assemblies had been forbidden by royal proclamation, and two of his predecessors had already been burnt. 1 He was fully aware of his danger, and, writing to his friend Lever, then in Switzerland, thus expressed his sense of it : " Now I stand in the gapp, beyng every moment of an hour in danger of takyng, and fear of bodily death. I am in my mynd, the Lord be praised, most quiet and joyful, seyng the fervent zeal of so many, and such increase of our congregation in the myddest of thys cruel and violent persecution." 2 The Christian courage of Bentham was shown not only by his ministering to his flock, but by attending to the stake such of them as were called upon to seal their faith with their blood. The queen's procla- mation forbade this, under pain of death, but Ben- tham defied it, and so " godlye comforted " his 1 Foxe's "Acts and Monuments," vol. viii. pp. 443, 454, 459. 2 Strype's " Memorials," III. i. 133. Date, July 17, 1558. THOMAS BENTHAM. 139 people in their agonies "that the adversaryes them- selves were astonyed." It was to no purpose that the sheriffs officers sought to check him ; he would not be restrained. " We know," he replied, with noble boldness, " they are the people of God ; and therefore we cannot but choose to wish well to them and say God strengthen them." Then, turning to the stake when the faggots had just been lighted below the seven martyrs brought out to die that July morning, he prayed that God, for Christ's sake, would give them grace to bear their sufferings. To that prayer the people fervently responded "Amen, amen." The scene read a lesson to the brutal Bonner, for though the '"hereticks" must of course be burnt, it seemed as well to do so by stealth, and writing from Fulham, he penned the following note to Cardinal Pole and Bishop Gardiner : " Your Grace and my Lord Chancellor, 1 should doe well to have them burnt in Hammersmythe, a myle from my howse here ; for then can I giff sentence against theym here in the p[ar]ishe church vy [very] quietly and without tumult or having the sheriff present, [and] without businesse or stirre put they m to execution in the said place." 1 This was done accordingly, and the poor wretches, yet rather the happy souls, were dragged out of Bonner's coal-hole to the church, condemned, and, as Bentham writes, " burned in post haste the same night." A " fact," he adds, which " purchaseth hym more hatred than any he hath done of the common multitude." The accession of Elizabeth, a few months after this ghastly scene, terminated, and, as is to be believed, for ever, the supremacy of Rome in England. To men like Bentham it was not only deliverance from a 1 Petyt MSS. (Inner Temple), 538.47, f. 3. The letter, a fragment, is dated July 28, but without year. It has been printed in Historical MSS. Commission Report 2, p. 152, but by a misreading the word " quietly " reads " quickly." It is here given from the original. 140 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. terrible death, but the opening of a door of useful- ness. It is a pity he did not use it better. He was an honest, good, courageous man, but his zeal was not tempered with discretion, and he preached an unwise sermon, which set all the people disputing about ceremonies, 1 and led, as is supposed, to Queen Elizabeth's prohibition of all sermons, whether by " Papist or Gospeller." Many outrages, indeed, were at this time com- mitted by fanatics, in the name of religion. On Christmas Day, 1558, a couple of cobblers, followed by a very great mob, forcibly entered the Church of St. Augustine, assigned to the Italians, and rushing into the pulpit together, railed against Queen Mary, Cardinal Pole, and the Roman Catholic religion. This was in the morning, and a similar scene was repeated in the French Church in the afternoon. 2 The merits and sufferings of Bentham could not very well be overlooked in the appointments made to vacant bishoprics, nor were they, for he was conse- crated 3 Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry on March 24, 1560. Four days before his consecration, a child was born to him at his house on London Bridge, close to the Church of St Magnus, where he had formerly been preacher. 4 Bishop Bentham was celebrated as a preacher and a divine. His sermons, some of which he delivered at Paul's Cross and others in the Royal Chapel, were highly esteemed by all classes, from the queen downwards. In the Convocation of 1563 he was one of four bishops appointed to revise the Catechism, 5 and is credited with the translation of Ezekiel and 1 " Zurich Letters," i. pp. 7, 8. 2 Calendar State Papers, Venetian, p. 2 : II Schifenoya to the Mantuan Ambassador, December 13, 1558. 3 Congt cTtlire, December 27. 1559. Rest. temp. July 8, 1560 (Rymer). 4 H. Machyn's " Diary " (published by Camden Society), p. 229. 5 Burnet's "History of the Reformation," ed. Pocock, vol. iii. P- 5I5- THOMAS BENTHAM. 141 Daniel in the Bishops' Bible, on the strength of the appended initials "T. C. L." In consideration of his learning, the University of Oxford in 1566 conferred upon him the degree of D.D., sending a special commission to London for that purpose, headed by the Vice-Chancellor. In his governance of his diocese he was deemed supine and lax, for he avoided as much as possible enforcing the ecclesiastical laws, especially in the case of the surplice, a garment to which he strongly objected, and connived at such of his clergy as refused to wear it. In Elizabeth's first Convocation he had voted against all ecclesiastical habits whatso- ever. In his diocese parishioners do not seem to have been presented for non-attendance at the Sacrament, nor was Confirmation vigorously imposed on all children aged seven and above. The Romish priests also were let alone beyond a formal certifi- cate of their numbers to the Privy Council, though they were very numerous and extremely arrogant. The recollection of the fires of Smithfield and the cries of the martyred Protestants may have inspired him with a lasting horror of religious persecution. This inaction continued for five years, and then the queen, determined to enforce conformity, so severely reproved him for it, that in 1565 he issued a commission for the Visitation of his diocese, when non-communicants were to be looked after, as well as all those who were over seven years old and had not been confirmed. His episcopate lasted sixteen years longer, but there is no record of his doings in that period, though, judging from the state in which his successor found the diocese, we should think that Bishop Bentham had relapsed into his former attitude of letting things alone. He died at Eccleshall Castle on February 21, 1579, and was buried in the church there. He left a widow and some children. 142 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. WILLIAM ALLEY. 1509-1570. BISHOP OF EXETER, 1560. BISHOP ALLEY was born at Chipping Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, and educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1533, after which he continued his academical studies at Oxford. At the accession of Queen Mary he held a benefice, of which, being married, he was deprived, when he retired into the north of England, and maintained himself and family by practising medicine till the ac- cession of Elizabeth restored him to his clerical duties. In 1559 (January i) he was appointed Reader of Divinity at St. Paul's and also Penitentiary and Prebendary, when he delivered twelve famous lectures on the First Epistle of St. Peter, which were published in 1565 under the title of " Ptokomuseion," or Poor Man's Library. He was consecrated Bishop of Exeter, July 14, 1560. He was a strong advocate of conformity, as he showed by the petition he presented to the bishops in the Convocation of 1563, in which he urged their tl honourable wisdoms " to devise strict ordinances for everything, from the shape of the button on the top of a minister's cap to the sermon he was to deliver. In these matters all differences were to be abhorred and put down. It was quite intolerable that one clergy- man should wear a button on his cap and another should not. The thing was of course indifferent in itself, but the "prince had prescribed it," and that was sufficient. It was the same with preaching. No diversities of JOHN PARKHURST. 143 interpretation were allowable, and every religious tenet must be precisely and similarly expressed, and the more capable it was of differences of opinion, the more it required exact and authoritative definition. He was also very jealous against the practice of occult arts, and propounded "that there be some penal, sharp, yea, capital pains for witches, charmers, sorcerers, enchanters, and such like." 1 Yet one who was well acquainted with him records that he was a man "verie merrie and pleasant, voide of all sadnesse," 2 kind-hearted and a great encourager of learning, and accessible to all. He was much addicted to bowls, but did not lose his temper when the ball went wrong, as Bishop Aylmer was said to do. He usefully showed his learning by translating Deuteronomy for the Bishops' Bible. He died on April 15, 1570. He left a widow and one son, who was Archdeacon of Cornwall. JOHN PARKHURST. BISHOP OF NORWICH, 1560. BISHOP PARKHURST was born at Guildford, but educated at the Grammar School belonging to Magdalen College, Oxford, from whence he pro- ceeded to Merton College, of which in 1529 he became a probationer fellow, and afterwards fellow and tutor. Merton College was at that time distinguished for its adhesion to Romanism, and Parkhurst stood almost alone in his uncompromising advocacy of 1 Strype's "Annals," I. i. pp. 518-520. 2 John Vowell, alias Hooker, 1524-1621. 144 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. Protestantism. He was chaplain to the Duke of Suffolk and also to Queen Catherine Parr, and in 1549 he was presented to the Rectory of Bishop's Cleeve by Lord Seymour. In the reign of Mary he lived at Zurich as the guest of Rodolph Gualter. Under Elizabeth he was restored to his benefices and placed in the list of such as were to be preferred to bishoprics or deaneries, and he was unable to " keep his neck out of the halter," as he designated the mitre. Accordingly, he was consecrated Bishop of Norwich, September I, 1560, receiving permission to hold his rectory " in commendam " for three years. His objections to the episcopate were due not alone to personal considerations, but in a considerable degree to the religious aspect of the time, which he regarded as very unsatisfactory. The hope of im- provement, however, silenced his scruples. The diocese which he was now called upon to govern was in a deplorable state, honey-combed with schismatics and double-dyed with simoniacal corruption ; nor was he at all adapted to play the part of a religious reformer, being of much too easy, not to say weak, a disposition firmly to stamp out abuses. Something, however, he attempted. He commenced the Visitation of his diocese May 2, 1561, and in the midst of it wrote to his friend Bullinger that he was " occupied whole days together in the discovery and extirpation of errors and irregu- larities." 1 While he thus congratulated himself on his zeal, Cecil wrote to the archbishop a very different account of his conduct. "The bishop of Norwich is blamed even of the best sort for his remissness in ordering the clergy. He winketh at schismatics and Anabaptists, as I am informed." 2 The principal feature of Parkhurst's diocesan rule 1 " Zurich Letters," i. 97. 2 Petyt MSS., 47, f. 372 in " Parker Correspondence," p. 149 : Cecil to Archbishop Parker, August 12, 1561. JOHN PARKHURST. 145 was toleration of abuses ; here he was strong, and, as he flattered himself, but as he could not persuade others to believe, successful. He vigorously kept his eyes shut to all that he did not wish to see. Sym- pathizing with many of the sentiments and practices of the Puritan clergy, he connived, as a rule, at their nonconformity, until forced by pressure from without to take notice of it. He "winked at" the non- wearing of the surplice, the mutilation of the Liturgy, the use of the loaf bread at the Communion instead of the wafer bread, which had been ordered by the queen's Injunctions. By this masterly inactivity he often drew upon himself the expostulations and reprimands of the primate, 1 and even of the queen. The fact, however, was that he took quite a different view of matters from the archbishop, to say nothing of the queen, with whose principles and procedure he entirely disagreed. To his broad mind the sub- stantials of religion, godliness, and knowledge were the chief concerns, compared with which any form of Church organization was immaterial. This appears again and again in his correspondence with the foreign reformers. Thus he writes to Simler (April 29, 1562) : " Religion is making a favourable progress both in England and Scotland. There are very few things which I dare object to. We hope for some improve- ment at the approaching meeting of Convocation. It is the inconsistency of the lives of the English with the gospel that alone displeases me. The gospel was never preached among us more sincerely or with greater zeal. May the Lord give us His Spirit, that we may follow the things of the Spirit, and mortify the deeds of the flesh." 2 Subsequently he wrote to a like effect : " We only dispute about ceremonies and habits, and things of no importance." 3 1 See " Parker Correspondence," pp. 458, 460, etc. 2 "Zurich Letters," i. p. 109. 3 Ibid., p. 302. 146 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. With Parkhurst force was no argument ; he sought when he sought anything, to persuade men rather than to coerce them, and persuasion failing, he left them to themselves. Other bishops of the same theological sentiments, but of very different natures, found themselves so heated in the strife of enforcing conformity, that they became chafed and exacerbated ; but it was never so with Parkhurst. Over and over again he had been goaded by Archbishop Parker to enforce the penal laws, and on one such occasion he thus replied, giving his experience in favour of lenity and tolerance " This I find, by good proof, that the rough and austere manner of ruling doth the least good ; and, on the other part, the contrary hath and doth daily reclaim and win divers. And, therefore, do I choose rather to continue my accustomed and natural form and manner, which I know how it hath and doth, than with others by rigour and 'extremity to over- rule." ! His conciliatory disposition, however, sometimes went too far to please even the party whom it be- friended, and he gave much offence to the Puritans by a sermon he preached on Jeremiah xxiii. 28 : " What is the chaff to the wheat ? saith the Lord." They had the wheat, he told them, in the liberty to preach the gospel; wherefore then did they trouble themselves about conformity in non-essen- tials which was but as chaff in comparison. But such width of view was to those precisians the preaching of another Gospel which they could not away with. One party there was against whom Bishop Park- hurst entertained feelings of the most bitter hostility ; these were the Roman Catholics, and in speaking or writing of them no language was too severe or bitter to be used. The pope was Antichrist, the Romish 1 Strype's " Annals/' II. i. p. 509. JOHN PARKHURST. 147 prelates "pseudo-bishops" were only fit to be hung ; those who believed in that creed were to be classed with such "horrid monsters" as Arians and Ana- baptists, and indeed were the "enemies of Christ/* whose proper reward was "a halter," and the ex- tinction of whose Church he devoutly prayed for. Their ceremonies he never spoke of but with humorous, albeit ferocious, contempt, as indeed he did of all ritualism, which he regarded as ftomanism in dis- guise, so that when the tidings reached him of the removal of the crucifix and candlesticks from the queen's chapel, he remarked that it was "a good riddance." When informed that a cow had given birth to a fawn, he observed that it was indeed "a marvellous occurrence," but the wonder was dimin- ished by its having happened in the neighbourhood of the " portentous monks." 1 When urged by the archbishop to make inquiries about the Romanists in his diocese, with a view to punishing them for their recusancy, he, in marked contrast with his dilatoriness against the Puritans, joyfully entered on the work. "I shall," he wrote, " carefully attend to this, and give every intelligence as soon as possible concerning the enemies of Christ." 2 From what has been said above, we shall be pre- pared to find in Bishop Parkhurst an easy-going, if not a supine, prelate who ruled, when he ruled at all, not by authority, which he detested, but by personal influence. Nor shall we be disappointed in such an expectation. His primary visitation concluded, he retired to his country seat at Ludham, where he rested in literary ease and social enjoyment, and his clergy were troubled with no more Visita- tions for the next seven years, and would probably then have remained undisturbed but for the "Zurich Letters," i. pp. 30, 121, 122, 302, 305. 2 Ibid., p. 122: Bishop Parkhurst to Bullinger, August 20, 1562. 148 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. interference of the archbishop visiting his diocese by commission. The reason for this neglect of his duty was, in a way, creditable to him ; episcopal Visitations meant fees wrung out of the pockets of the clergy, and Parkhurst's generous and kindly nature shrunk from such exactions for his own enrichment. Another cause, not so creditable, was an innate slothfulness, of which he was himself very conscious; and as he wrote to one of his friends he was " a slow-paced horse " to whom "spurs must be applied." 1 Others, besides his private friends, were conscious of that infirmity of his, and from time to time applied the goad, though with but small effect. In 1565 he was in a manner compelled to obtain an ecclesiastical commission to examine and rectify abuses in his diocese. But it was sorely against the grain, and the primate thought it necessary to warn the Privy Council, through Cecil, that unless they gave a helping hand there would be no result. 2 This warn- ing was not without reason, for when the crusade for the enforcement of conformity was commenced after the issuing of the Advertisements, not a single minister was ejected in the diocese of Norwich, 3 though it was notorious for the nonconforming practices of its clergy, and other ecclesiastical abuses many of a very scandalous nature. Some of these in connection with the clergy of the cathedral, elicited in 1569 a royal commission of inquiry, and in 1570 a sharp letter of remonstrance from the queen, ordering the bishop to see to them. But there were other evils yet more grievous even than fanatical zeal, for simony, pluralism, and gross ignorance among the clergy were widely prevalent, and it was the common report that everything in the 1 " Zurich Letters," i. p. 98. 2 " Parker Correspondence," p. 234. 3 "Zurich Letters," ii. p. 241. JOHN PARKHURST. 149 diocese of Norwich, from the deanery downwards, was on sale. Archbishop Parker, who knew that country well, being a native of it, wrote that in its outrageous simony, it was so much without remorse of conscience that the stones would speak if it was not reformed. The lay patrons of benefices either sold them openly to the highest bidder, or else put in a parson on a miserable pittance, the rest going into their own pockets. Frequently they would give five or six benefices to be so held by one clergyman, the result of which, of course, was that in many parishes there was no divine service at all, or else only at rare intervals. Nay, the patrons of livings in Norfolk and Suffolk were sometimes so audaciously shameless as to give them to laymen, putting in them even boys and their own servants. Occasionally, but only in the grossest cases, did Bishop Parkhurst attempt to stay this tide of cor- ruption. One such case was that of one Norton, who had been presented to the Rectory of Morley, Norfolk, by Owen Hubbard, or Hobart, the patron. This Norton, though a priest, was a man of notori- ously vile character, who had been carted through the streets of Norwich for flagrant and open immo- rality, and, by order of the Judges of Assize, had been pilloried and had his ears cut off for issuing a counterfeit licence. This crime was recent, but his antecedents were equally infamous, for he had formerly been a domestic servant, in which capacity he had forged a codicil to his master's will in his own favour. On these grounds Parkhurst refused to institute him, whereupon the patron preferred a complaint against him in the Arch- bishop's Court. On another occasion, however, Parkhurst acted with culpable timidity. Lord Keeper Bacon gave the advowson of the Rectory of Wetherden, Suffolk, to a Mr. John Bacon, a kinsman, who, on the living 150 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. becoming vacant, kept it in his own hands for six months and then put it up to auction, the purchaser being a clergyman. The bishop, well aware of what was going on, dared do no more than write a letter of remonstrance to the Lord Keeper, with what result is not known. When, however, the Earl of Sussex, who had disposed of his advowsons in a similar way, but was scandalized at finding they were being sold by auction, asked the bishop's interference, Parkhurst informed him that it was not his business to investigate the rights of patrons, and that whosoever committed simony must settle it with his own conscience. For this abnegation of episcopal duty he received a well-merited censure from the primate. 1 He could, however, be sometimes firm, especially when he scented Romanism. An ex-Romish priest, who had been ordained by Bishop Oglethorp, Thomas Atkinson, Rector of Fornham All Saints, having been presented by a Mr. Kitson to the Rectory of Forn- ham St. Genevieve, applied to Bishop Parkhurst for institution, but was refused on the ground of ignorance and disaffection. He knew no Scripture and no Latin, and the bishop, asking him to decline his own Christian name of Thomas, found him unable to do it. His conduct, too, was not at all ministerial, for Parkhurst wrote of him that he " spent his time in bowling, dicing, carding, and on Sundays after evening prayer played at base, barleybrake, and such- like with the maids and youth of the parish." If Mr. Atkinson was at all a sample of the Romish conforming clergy, the growth of Puritanism is easy of comprehension. Yet the hands of Bishop Parkhurst himself were by no means unsoiled in this matter, for he had given a prebend to his servant, a well-educated man but 1 Strype's "Life of Parker," i. pp. 493-497 ; and "Annals," II. i. 172. JOHN PARKHURST. 151 not in orders, on the condition that he should pay out of it a pension of five pounds to the bishop's nephew, then a student at Cambridge. It caused a great scandal, but was finally arranged, though not very satisfactorily, by his resigning the prebend and receiving a pension of five pounds from the Dean and Chapter instead of it. The bishop's relations with the Flemings at Norwich need mention. They were divided into those who spoke Flemish only, and those who also spoke French. The former were the more numerous, and were called the Dutch, though not Hollanders ; while the latter, who were of a higher social position and better educated, were commonly described as French, though none of them were so till the massacre of St. Bartholomew, in 1572, drove many of that nation to Norwich as a place of refuge. 1 The religion of both these sections was strongly Calvinistic, both in doctrine and government, and though non-episcopal it had legal recognition. To the Dutch was assigned the choir of the Black Friars for conducting its wor- ship, while to the French Parkhurst gave the chapel of his palace. Over both he claimed superintendence, and in 1571 the Dutch congregation numbered about four thousand, and the French only four hundred. In the former all was tumult and rebellion, in the latter peace and quietness. 2 The bishop, if left to himself, would, not have interfered to compose the strife in the Dutch Church had not Archbishop Parker com- pelled him to do so. They resented his interference, and he complained, that they would not " give up a single point" in their controversy with each other, though he had treated them with the greatest mild- ness and consideration. Under pressure, he issued a commission of inquiry, of which the Mayor of 1 See " History of the Walloons," by W. C. Moens. 2 " Zurich Letters," i. p. 256. LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. Norwich was a member, and then withdrew from the contest. The dispute was finally settled by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who suspended the three ministers that had originated it. 1 Bishop Parkhurst approved of the prophesyings, believing them to be of "singular benefit to the Church of God, as well in the clergy as the laity." 2 Notwithstanding, he obeyed the mandate for their suppression. He assisted in the Bishops' Bible by translating four books of the Apocrypha. He died at Ludham, on February 2, 1575, and was buried in his cathedral. At the close of his life he was placed in great pecuniary embarrassment through the roguery of his receiver, one Thymel- thorp, who had collected from the clergy the sub- sidies due to the queen, but had embezzled them, leaving the bishop to defray the deficiency of two years' payments. Bishop Parkhurst was married twice, but had no family by either of his wives. As an author he is chiefly known by his contribution to the Bishops' Bible and by his voluminous correspondence with the principal German reformers, which has been printed in the " Zurich Letters," and furnishes his best memoir and character, as showing him to have been a man devoid of pride or ambition, tolerant, kindly, hospitable, and humorous, though as a bishop more inert than was fitting. 1 "Zurich Letters," i. pp. 256, 266; Strype's "Annals," II. i. p. 174. 2 " Parker Correspondence," pp. 456-458. ROBERT HORNE. 153 ROBERT HORNE. 1514-1579- BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, 1561. BISHOP HORNE was a native of Cumberland, and was elected a fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, on Bishop Fisher's foundation, in 1536, and graduated B.A. in 1537. He became senior bursar and Hebrew lecturer of his college, and in 1 546 was presented to the Vicarage of Matching, in Essex, by Sir Robert Rich, afterwards Lord Chancellor, and to Allhallows, Bread Street, by Archbishop Cranmer in 1550. In the following year, being then chaplain to Edward VI., he became Dean of Durham, and in 1552 the Duke of Northumberland recommended him for the bishopric on the deprivation of Tunstall. His reason for doing so was the hope of Home's assistance to enable him to obtain the temporalities of the see should he by his means become its bishop. But Home saw through him, as also did John Knox, whom, at the same time and for the same reason, the duke wished to be made Bishop of Rochester. The grapes being sour, Northumberland used very severe language of the man who had thus righteously frus- trated his greedy hopes. He was now " this pevyshe deane," 1 who was "lowys of his tonge." The looseness of tongue was, that Home had openly said that he would not accept the bishopric on the base conditions on which it had been offered. Northumberland had no other term to apply to this rectitude but as a "standynge in his owne conceyte, condempning every mans doinges and concerns but his owne." He could not conceal his chagrin, and in his anger 1 State Papers, Edward VI., vol. xv. 63, p. 48, Dec. 3, 1552. 154 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. applied to Home the very same evil motives by which he himself was actuated. " I have byne moche deceyvyd by hym," he wrote to Sir W. Cecil, when all hope of inducing Home to aid him in his designs had been abandoned, "for he ys undoubtedlye not onlye a gredy, covetuous man, but allso a malicious and an open evell speaker." l Home's conduct as Dean of Durham was in many respects odious to the Romanists, and in one instance, at least, deservedly so. His marriage was excusable if not commendable, notwithstanding the offence it gave ; his success in making converts to Protestantism was highly praiseworthy ; but for his Vandalism in destroying the beautiful stained-glass windows in the cloisters of Durham representing the life of St. Cuthbert, together with sundry ancient monu- ments, there could be no apology. It deeply offended pious Romanists, and at the accession of Queen Mary he was tried for the sacrilege before the Privy Council on September 15, 1553, and had he not managed to make his escape, his life would probably have been forfeited. During that reign he lived abroad, chiefly at Frankfort, where he sided with Cox in supporting the English Liturgy for the use of the exiles, who, having founded a university there, made him Hebrew lecturer. On his return to England he was present at the Westminster Conference with the Romanists, at which he took the principal part, and in the same year was appointed a visitor of the University of Cambridge and of the diocese of London. Besides this, he was a frequent preacher at Court, St. Paul's Cross, and other public places. On February 16, 1561, he was consecrated Bishop of Winchester, and in the following June visited his diocese. His report of it was fairly satisfactory, so far, at least, as outward conformity 1 State Papers, Edward VI., vol. xviii. I, January 2, 1552-3. ROBERT HORNE. 155 went. But a good many of the ministers failed to present themselves, and he found " many churches destitute of incumbents and mynisters, and much moar of good and hable men to performe the chardge, and many churches of so small lyvinge as they cannot enterteign any mynistre at all." 1 This was but the same old story told by most if not all of the bishops about their dioceses from Berwick-on- Tweed to the Land's End. Though Bishop Home was an Ecclesiastical Com- missioner and one of the devisers of the Advertise- ments, and did his best to force conformity on the Puritans, he in reality agreed with their objections to the very things he sought to make them adopt He differed from them, however, in the importance to be attached to the questions of dress and ritual, which they deemed essential, but which he regarded as being, in that respect, so inferior to the power of preaching the gospel and the unity of the Church, that he could not for their sake leave the ministry, nor permit others to do so if he could prevent them. He strongly objected, for instance, to the " Orna- ments Rubric," and hoped that the clause of the Act which legalised it would be removed by Parliament ; but while it was law he felt that it ought to be obeyed, and that objectionable and absurd as were surplices, copes, and square caps, the ministry ought not to be abandoned to the " papists " for matters so comparatively trifling. Such were the sentiments he expressed to his friend, Gualter, 2 at the time of the promulgation of the Advertisements, and years afterwards also, when the great split had taken place in the Church. His opinion of that schism in its causelessness and serious 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xvii. 23, Tune 8, 1561. 2 "Zurich Letters," Series i. p. 142 "(July 17, 1565), and pp. 248, 249. 156 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. results was sensible and true. "As far as lieth in them," he wrote, " they are too rashly and precipi- tately accessory to the wretched shipwreck of our Church, and are doubtless retarding not a little the free progress of the gospel." His comparison of their conduct to that of sailors, who should throw themselves overboard because the wind was unfavour- able was not, all things considered, very extravagant. Yet he showed a greater tolerance to noncon- formists even than Bishop Jewel was prepared to do ; for he gave a living to the famous Laurence Humphrey, though he had been cited into the Court of High Commission for his refusal to wear the cap and surplice, and communicate kneeling or with the wafer-bread. The living in question was in the diocese of Salisbury, and Jewel refused to institute him on the ground of nonconformity. In his treatment of the Romanists, Bishop Home cannot be accused of any undue leniency, but the opposite. He loathed their ritual and hated their doctrine. His iconoclasm in destroying the painted windows at Durham has already been mentioned, but it did not stand alone, for as visitor of New College, Oxford, he ordered its beautifully sculptured altar-screen to be defaced and then plastered and whitewashed, and the old Romish service-books were torn from their covers and used as waste paper. His forcing the oath of supremacy on Bishop Bonner, then a prisoner in the Marshalsea, and so one of his clergy, the refusal of which was a capital offence, has been deservedly condemned. As a gaoler of the Romish prelates entrusted to his keeping, he has incurred considerable odium, especially in the case of Feckenham, Abbot of Westminster, whom his influence lodged in the Tower. Leslie, the Scotch Bishop of Ross and Queen Mary's ambassador, proved too much for him, and their positions were so completely reversed that ROBERT HORNE. 157 Bishop Home was afraid to leave his own house lest his prisoner should pounce upon him, and he had to appeal to Cecil for aid. " Help me," he wrote, " that this devill were ridde out of my house." * Bishop Leslie, it seemed, did not confine himself merely to abusive language, for Home assigned as his reason for not waiting on Cecil, that "he could not come out of his chamber without great danger." Leslie was soon afterwards liberated and sent out of the kingdom. He took part in the general work of the Church, and besides devising the Advertisements, assented to and aided the drawing up the Thirty-nine Articles and the Book of Canons, as well as the Bishops' Bible, his portion being Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the Lamentations. Notwithstanding his Protestant zeal, he was unable to cope with the recusancy that pre- vailed in his diocese, and in 1575 applied to the Archbishop of Canterbury for a metropolitical Visita- tion of it. It was granted, and strange irregularities were revealed. He resided much in his diocese and at the several houses of his see, an excellent practice which, however, soon fell into desuetude. Bishop Home died at Winchester House, South- wark, on June I, 1579. He left five daughters quite unprovided for, for he was largely in debt to the queen, who immediately after his death issued process for payment, and his son-in-law, John Dayrell, wrote to Burghley, June 12, 1579, asking for time. 2 1 Lansdowne MSS., xvii. 57. Date of letter, November 14, 1573. 2 Calendar State Papers, vol. cxxxi. 23, p. 626. 158 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. EDMUND SCAMBLER. 1517-1594- BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH, 1561 ; NORWICH, 1584. BISHOP SCAMBLER was born at Gressingham, Lanca- shire, and educated at Cambridge, being a member first of Peterhouse, and afterwards of Queens' and Jesus. He graduated B.A. in 1542, and at the accession of Mary was in holy orders. An Edmund Scambler was admonished by the Privy Council in 1554, together with five other "inhabitants of the towne of Rye," to live peaceably like good subjects, 1 and it has been supposed that he was identical with the bishop. Bishop Scambler suffered a good deal in that reign, but remained at his post as a pastor to a London congregation. Queen Elizabeth gave, or restored, to him the Vicarage of Rye. Parker made him his chaplain, and in 1560 he received a prebend of York and a canonry of Westminster. He was considered a good preacher, and often occupied the pulpit at Paul's Cross and the Royal Chapel. He was conse- crated Bishop of Peterborough, February 16, 1561. The records of his episcopate are scanty and are not creditable to him, and if the letter 2 written to him by the Earl of Leicester, as is supposed, is to be depended on, he was one of those pastors who care more for the fleece than for the flock. He made frequent Visitations of his diocese, but only for the sake of the rich harvest of fees which he reaped on those occasions, and though he had formerly strenu- ously advocated the reform of abuses in the Church, 1 Lansdowne MSS. (Kennet), 482, p. 53. 2 Harleian MSS., 677. Sept. 27, 1578. This letter is only a copy. EDMUND SCAMBLER. 159 and proper provision for the spiritual wants of the people by an increase of preachers and good minis- ters, yet, when he himself became a bishop, he was notorious for his want of care in these respects, and also for his acts of spoliation. For the Puritans in his diocese he had a great aversion, the reasons of which he expressed in a remarkable letter he wrote to Burghley, in which he set forth their neglect, if not abhorrence, of "the divine servise sett owte by publique authoritye." At Overston it was conspicuous by its absence, and " in stede " of " the booke of comen prayer," two sermons accompanied, we presume, with extemporaneous orisons were delivered by two ministers who did not hold the episcopal licence to preach. At Whiston great numbers assembled from the neighbouring towns and villages to receive the Com- munion, which they celebrated " with preachers and ministers to their owne likinge, and contrarie to forme prescribed by the publique order of the Realme." In all these unauthorised " waies," they were, as the bishop noted, "verie bolde and stowte." 1 Part of that boldness, as appears elsewhere, was shown by the parishioners of this very Whiston putting their minister in the stocks. He may have deserved such treatment, but it was scandalous for them to have inflicted it. In 1576 Bishop Scambler visited his cathedral, for which he published his Injunctions, 2 and in 1584 he alienated to his patron, Lord Burghley, some of the best manors of his see, 3 and was immediately after- wards translated, by way of reward it must be sup- posed, to the bishopric of Norwich. In that see he was conspicuous as a spoliator, and one of his successors, Montagu, described him as its "calamitas" 1 Lansdowne MSS., 17 (27). 2 Ibid., 943, 619. 3 Wharton's observations in Strype's "Life of Cranmer," p. 1055. l6o LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. He devised a house in Ipswich, which had been given by Edward VI. as a residence for the bishop, to his son James for three lives, with leave to pull down as much of it as he pleased, and James Scambler availed himself of the permission by pulling it all down. He made to the queen, for the benefit of Sir Thomas Heneage, sixty-one separate demises for a period of eighty years. 1 It was commonly reported that when Bishop of Norwich he had embezzled the queen's subsidies, which he had collected from his clergy. He wrote to Walsingham denying the truth of the accusation, which he declared had no other founda- tion than " the clamourous and unconscionable reportes of some lewde disposed persons." 2 Denial, however, especially from such a man as Scambler, is far from being disproof. His episcopate at Norwich was sadly tarnished by the trial and condemnation of Francis Ket, formerly Fellow of Corpus College, Cambridge, who for his heterodox opinions about Christ's Atonement and the Divinity of the Holy Ghost was in 1588 cited into the Bishop's Spiritual Court, where he was con- victed and sentenced. The trial having been thus concluded, Bishop Scambler wrote to Burghley press- ing for immediate confirmation and execution of the sentence. His request was granted, and three months afterwards the unfortunate cleric was burnt at Norwich. As an author he is but noted for his translation of the Gospels of St. Luke and St. John in the Bishops' Bible, and for a treatise he wrote when Vicar of Rye, *' Medicine prooved for a desperate Conscience." Some of his letters are in print, and from one of them 3 it appears that he sanctioned the practice of 1 Lambeth MSS., 943, 619. * State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. clxxxix. 46 : Bishop Scambler to Sir F. Walsingham, May 29, 1586. 2 "Ellis's Letters," Third Series, vol. iii. p. 350. May 25, 1563. JOHN BEST. l6l changing the baptismal name at confirmation, when it was an unsuitable one. Bishop Scambler left a large family and a large fortune for their maintenance. He was buried in his cathedral, but his monu- mental effigy was destroyed in the time of the great rebellion. JOHN BEST. 1511-1570. BISHOP OF CARLISLE, 1561. BISHOP BEST was born in Yorkshire, but there is no record of his place of education. He was a secular priest, and was consecrated Bishop of Carlisle on March 2, 1561, and soon afterwards visited his diocese, the state of which he duly reported to Cecil. Three sermons he preached in the cathedral were listened to by large audiences, who " moche reioyced " at his exposition of Protestant doctrine. " The gentilmen of the countrey " also " receaved him in evry place w h moche civilitie ; " but the treatment he received from his clergy was such that he wrote of them as being "wicked ympes of Antichrist and for y e most parte very ignorante and stubborne, past measure false and sotle." 1 Some of them he excommunicated, but declared that he should " no furder medle w h them " until he should have " some aide," by which, of course, he meant an Ecclesiastical Commission. He made creditable endeavours to evangelize and reform his diocese, but they were resisted by his clergy, who were nearly all Romish priests, and nowhere more so than in his own cathedral. The dean, Sir Thomas Smith, was a layman, and was at that 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xviii. Date, July 19, 1561. M 162 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. time ambassador at the Court of France, and the Chapter was composed of four prebendaries, of whom the bishop wrote to Cecil that " three were unlearned and the fourth unzealous." x Though ignorant of things spiritual, they managed the cathedral revenues with a keen eye to their own interests, " turning all to their own gaine ; " pocketing all they could and letting the edifice go to decay, and when the bishop would have visited them and inquired into their doings, they refused to allow him to do anything of the kind. 2 Some years later, however, he obtained a special commission of inquiry into the " abuses and evil doings of the prebendaries," 3 but, as he had to learn, and did learn, it is one thing to get an inquiry made, and quite another to obtain any result from it. As to evangelizing his diocese, he presently discovered that his first impressions of the good disposition of the people to the gospel were far too favourable, and that in reality Popery, as he phrased it, was widely prevalent and too deeply rooted to be extirpated by a few sermons. That being so, he had recourse to the secular arm, the brute force of an ecclesiastical commission, to compel them to enter the Protestant fold, and got himself placed on several such com- missions for the Province of York, 4 but neither therein was his purpose gained, and the diocese of Carlisle remained, what it long continued to be, Romish to the very core of it. Though his preaching efforts had small, if any, success, it was to his honour to have made them, and others seem to have thought so, for in 1566 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the University of Oxford, the vice-chancellor waiting on 1 Lansdowne MSS. 2 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xl. 100, p. 281. October, 1566. 3 Ibid., vol. xxi. 13, p. 192. January 14, 1562. 4 Rymer's " Fcedera," ix. 611. JAMES PILKINGTON. 163 him in London for that purpose, 1 and in the following year the Crown conferred upon him the valuable rectory of Romalde, to hold " in commendam " with his bishopric. 2 In the great northern rebellion of 1569 he took a conspicuous part, and showed such courage and ability in that time of danger, that he was specially recommended to the Government by Lord Scrope, 3 and after the rising had been crushed he was placed on a commission to assess the fines to be imposed on such as had been guilty of high treason. He did not long survive this last employment, dying on May 22, 1570. He left a widow, "a poor blind woman," and several children, but without any means for their support. In fact, at the time of his decease he was considerably in debt to the queen, and his successor Barnes generously wrote 4 to the Earl of Sussex, imploring him to intercede with her Majesty in behalf of the widow and children. The appeal, however, so far as is known, produced no result. JAMES PILKINGTON. 1520-1576. BISHOP OF DURHAM, 1561. BISHOP PILKINGTON was born at Rivington Hall in the parish of Bolton-le-Moors, where his family had been seated for many centuries. Yet, though of 1 Strype's "Annals," I. ii. p. 145. 2 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xliii. 58, p. 298. August 29, 1567. 3 Ibid., 127, p. 167. December 26, 1569. 4 The original letter is in Lambeth MSS., 1168, and has been printed in Dr. Leonard Howard's "Collection of Letters," vol. i. p. 200. 164 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. ancient lineage, he was poor in this world's goods, and was educated as a sizar of St. John's College, Cambridge, where in 1539 he took his B.A. degree and was elected a Fellow. He was a strenuous advocate of Protestantism, and was selected with others to argue against Transub- stantiation before the royal visitors at Cambridge in 1549, and in the following year received from the Crown the vicarage of Kirby in Kendal, as a reward, it is to be presumed, of his able services. In the reign of Mary he resided at Zurich and Basle, depending on charity for his support. In the con- troversy which arose among the exiles about the English Liturgy, he sided with those who were for its use, but was conspicuous for his moderation in that dispute. On his return at the accession of Elizabeth, he was placed on a commission to visit the University of Cambridge and Eton College, and in 1559 was elected Master of his old college. At this time he preached a sermon before his University at the re- interment of Bucer's bones, which had been exhumed by the Romanists, and another at St. Paul's Cross on June 4, 1561, after the burning of the cathedral spire. This discourse produced a reply from one of Bishop Bonner's chaplains, by name Morwen, a deprived Prebendary of St. Paul's, who declared that the destruction of the spire was owing to the wrath of God for the errors of the Protestants. Before preaching this discourse, Pilkington had become a bishop, having been elected to the See of Winchester in 1 560, and afterwards, on the alteration of that arrangement, to the Bishopric of Durham, to which he was consecrated on March 2, 1561. He visited his cathedral in person on October 29 follow- ing, and found it, as he also did the rest of his diocese, in such disorder and his difficulties so great, that in his letter to Cecil he compared his situation to that JAMES PILKINGTON. 165 of St. Paul when he fought with wild beasts at Ephesus. l His letters to Archbishop Parker and the Earl of Leicester give a very mournful picture of the state of his clergy, especially as to their gross neglect of ministerial duty. At the time of the publication of the Advertise- ments he was so much opposed to the compulsory wearing of the vestments, that he threatened to resign his bishopric rather than enforce their adoption, 2 fully sharing Jewel's aversion to vestments, copes, and crosses ; he was, in fact, an uncompromising iconoclast, and spared neither things nor places commonly held sacred. At his own palace at Auckland he pulled down and broke in pieces the college bells, and converted places that had been formerly used for divine service into bowling alleys and shooting butts. 3 Such Vandalism would be hardly likely to make him more popular with the Romanists, or attract them to the new religion which he so earnestly preached, especially when they saw him pocket the proceeds of the sale of the old metal, bricks, and timber. It has been urged in his defence, that he found these buildings in a ruinous condition, and therefore pulled them down ; but if so he might have built them up again. In October, 1567, he made a second visitation of his cathedral, when, in concert with Dean Whitting- ham, he but too effectually carried out the royal injunctions for the removal of all objects of idolatry and superstition, or what he regarded as such, and in his zeal defaced many ancient and beautiful monu- ments. Though Bishop Pilkington was a great iconoclast, he was a vigorous maintainer of the rights and 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xx. 5. October 15, 1561. 2 " Parker Correspondence," p. 237. 3 From a contemporary chronicle printed in Cooper's "Athense Cantabrigienses," i. 348. 1 66 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. property of his see. Shortly after his consecration he had received a partial restitution of his temporali- ties, but the restitution of the remainder was long delayed, it being felt by the queen and her ministers that the spiritual and temporal power of the Bishops of Durham was excessive. Pilkington appears to have so pertinaciously insisted on his rights, and so strenuously refused to allow the bishopric to be spoliated, that the queen made him a prisoner in his own house, for we find him, in a letter to Sir W. Cecil, written just before the warrant for the restitution of his temporalities was issued (May 23, 1566), stating that then he was "at liberty to walk," and " dared to go abroad into gardens." l At last the matter was arranged, and on June 13, 1566, the warrant was issued for the complete restitution of his temporalities, on the condition of his paying to the Crown ;iooo a year during his life. 2 The question, however, did not end here, and was again brought up after the defeat of the Northern rebellion in 1 569. By law all forfeitures of the rebels fell, not as in ordinary cases to the Crown, but to the bishop as Prince Palatine of Durham. These, as the Earl of Sussex, then president of the council of the North, wrote to Cecil (December 25, 1569), were " too great for any subject to receive," and he recommended, either that the queen should compound with the bishop, or else should translate him to some other diocese, whereby, " sede vacante, all might grow to her." 3 Pilkington naturally resisted such an invasion of his rights, and objected to be robbed either by composition or by removal. Complications arose, but Parliament solved the difficulty by passing an Act that transferred the forfeitures to the queen. 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xxxix. 78, p. 272. 2 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xxxix. 81, p. 273. May 27, 1566. 8 Ibid., Addenda, vol. xv. 125, p. 166. WILLIAM DOWNHAM. 167 Subsequently, in 1573, another attempt was made by the Crown to deprive the see of the fisheries of Norham, but that claim Bishop Pilkington successfully resisted. While alive, as became him to be, to his own rights, he was not insensible to the responsibilities of his temporal position, which he showed by incorporating the city of Durham under an alderman and twelve burgesses. Bishop Pilkington died at Auckland, January 3,^1576. In his will he had desired to be buried with as few " popish " ceremonies as might be, and as cheaply, instructions which were too literally executed, and he was buried at St. Andrew's, Auckland, without any ceremonies at all. This gave such great offence that his body was re-interred a few months afterwards in the choir of his cathedral. Bishop Pilkington was married and had two daughters, to whom he be- queathed a large fortune. His fame rests chiefly on his literary merits, the evidence of which is given in his collected works, which have been published by the Parker Society. WILLIAM DOWNHAM. 1519-1577- BISHOP OF CHESTER, 1561. BISHOP DOWNHAM was of Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1541, and became a Fellow in 1543. He commenced his ecclesiastical career as a monk, and his first appointment in the Church, so far as is known, was that of chaplain to Princess, afterwards Queen, Elizabeth. In 1560 he 168 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. received a canonry of Westminster, and was con- secrated Bishop of Chester, March 2, 1561, receiving at the same time, owing to the poorness of that see, two "commendams," for seven years, and on the ground of his attendance at Court as queen's chaplain was excused 6$ is. 6d. of his firstfruits. l At this time he was made a commissioner of recusants, and in that capacity we have his signature to a very singular document, 2 and one well worth reading, which sets forth the names of the Romish recusants at that time, together with their characters and the places of residence to which they were restricted. In 1562, he with the Earl of Derby and others was placed on an ecclesiastical commission for his diocese, for the purpose of enforcing the Act of Uniformity, and of restoring to the Crown its ecclesiastical and spiritual jurisdiction. 3 Bishop Downham, however, was averse to making people religious by compulsion, and did not even visit his diocese till compelled to do so, of which inertness Bishop Pilkington complained to the Arch- bishop of Canterbury to write to his Grace of York being useless, as he was particeps criminis. " The Bishop of Chester," he wrote, "hath compounded with my lord of York for his Visitation, and gathers up the money by his servant ; but never a word spoken of any Visitation or reformation, and that, he says, he does of friendship, because he will not trouble the country, nor put them to charge in calling them together." 4 Yet his clergy certainly required looking after, if what Pilkington said about them was true. " It is too lamentable to see and hear how negligently they say any service there, and how seldom," was his remark 1 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cclxii. 160. 2 Ibid., vol. xi. 45, p. 521. 8 Ibid., vol. xxiii. 56, p. 103. July 20. 4 " Parker Correspondence," p. 222. Date, 1564. WILLIAM DOWNHAM. 169 concerning them. The Vicar of Blackburn comes in for his special censure as being "as evil a vicar as the worst," and there was, moreover, " a fantastical young man," who claimed to be " a medium," and to hold converse with the departed. But he was a layman. If he had been left to himself, Bishop Downham would never have interfered with his clergy, however negligent or fantastical they might have been, but in 1568 he received two sharp letters from the queen urging him to have a watchful eye upon the Romish proselytizers, and to take " special care for maintain- ing uniformity within his diocese." 1 Thus roused from his lethargy, he set about the Visitation of his vast diocese, one of the largest in England, for it extended from Staffordshire to Scotland. On the whole, he was pleased with its results, for wherever he went he "had," as he informed Cecil, " most gentle entertaynement of the wo r shipfull," and also " found the people verie tractable and obedient," 2 and the further he travelled from home the more tractable he found them, the most so on the borders of Scotland. He had full power to punish the re- fractory recusants, and so availed himself of it as to be able to declare that their punishment " hathe done so muche good in the Countre that I trust I shall never be trobled agayne with the like." Yet he admitted that more in the way of bringing " obstinate and wilfull people into conformitie " had been accom- plished by the preaching of Doctor Nowell, the famous Dean of St. Paul's, than he had done with his more forcible arguments of fine and imprisonment. In this letter we have also a statement of his financial position, which affords us an insight into the 1 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, vols. xxiii. 56 ; xlvi. 33. February. 2 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xlviii. 36. Date of letter, November I, 1568. I/O LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. home life of a bishop in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, with its outward pomp and its inward anxieties ; its sumptuous hospitality, and yet its extreme difficulty of making both ends meet. His reason for thus dwelling on his pecuniary troubles was that his " com- mendams " were on the eve of expiring, and he wanted them renewed for life. Otherwise, as he wrote, he would have to abate his household, for the support of which his bishopric, due deductions made, yielded him but five hundred marks. His " poore familie," as he calls it, numbered forty persons, "younge and ould, besides coomers and goers." All his income, so he said, went in " housekeeping," and he was " gladd to make even at the yere's ende." Still, he was " oute of debt." His Visitation over, he relapsed into his former inertness, for which he was ordered to appear before the Privy Council, who transferred his case, as was but proper, to an ecclesiastical tribunal, consisting of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of Winchester, Ely, and Worcester, who tendered their thanks to the Council for doing so. 1 In resisting abuses of patronage, Bishop Downham showed much courage as appears from a letter he wrote to the Earl of Leicester. " The xx th of this monethe, beinge palm ssondaye, a Chaplen of my ne Will 111 Wright M r of Arte of Cambridge, well Learned, Imediatlie after a sermon he made ij myles from Chester was not onlie Im- prisoned in the Stockes by young M r Venables w'hout authoritie, but also forceblie used to his great daunger and p'ill of his lyef. The people were manie w'h Venables. The woomen cast at him Rotten egges, and other despites they did him." s The bishop, to his credit, was sincerely anxious for the evangelization of his diocese, and for that end 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, Addenda, vol. xx. pp. 340, 341. 2 Additional MSS., British Museum, 32091, f. 268. Date of letter, [March 21, 1572-3]. THOMAS DAVIES. 17 1 employed the services of Dean Nowell and other preachers, but they were so shamefully abused by the Romanists at Manchester, that they were " greatlie discouraged," and their number became " verie scant." Bishop Downham died December 3, 1577. He had two sons, the elder of whom, George, became Bishop of Derry. THOMAS DAVIES. 1512-1573. BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH, 1561. BISHOP THOMAS DAVIES was born at Caerhun, Carnarvonshire. Entering St. John's College, Cam- bridge, he afterwards migrated to Queens', where he graduated as Bachelor in Law in 1543. About 1546 he was Chancellor and Canon of Bangor, and in the reign of Mary held the Rectory of Trifriw. He was also Archdeacon of St. Asaph, and held the sinecure of Llandinam, Montgomeryshire. He was conse- crated Bishop of St. Asaph, May 26, 1561, holding two benefices in " commendam." Beyond officialisms, there is nothing to record of his episcopate, except that he was accused of making scandalous leases of the rectories which he held " in commendam." He died in 1573, leaving a widow and one daughter. He founded a scholarship at Queens' College, Cambridge, and was a donor to Bangor School. 1 1 Cooper's " Athenoe Cantabrigienses," vol. i. p. 319. 1/2 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. RICHARD CHEYNEY. BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER, 1562. RICHARD CHEYNEY, Bishop of Gloucester, was born in London and educated at Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. as a scholar of Christ's College in 1529, and became Fellow of Pembroke in the follow- ing year. In 1532 he was ordained both deacon and priest by Stokesley, Bishop of London, and held an ecclesi- astical office at Court, 1 but of what nature is unknown, In the reign of Henry VIIL he held several benefices, and in that of Edward VI. was collated to the Arch- deaconry of Hereford. In the beginning of the reign of Mary he was one of the six divines who argued against Transubstantiation in the dispute held by royal command in Convocation, 1553. It was closed by the incontrovertible argument of the Romish prolocutor : " You have the word, but we have the sword." 2 From a sentence in one of Archbishop Parker's letters, it would appear that he had not conformed to Romanism under Queen Mary, to the extent, that is, of officiating as a priest, since he tells us that in her reign Cheyney was " occasionally present at Mass " conduct which the archbishop accounts for by the suggestion that it was " by a frailty." 3 Presence at Mass, however, does not seem to include the idea of celebration, but to contradict it. On the other hand, he continued to hold his archdeaconry for four 1 " Parker Correspondence," p. 139. 2 Burnet's " History of the Reformation," ed. Pocock, vol. ii. p. 428. 3 Strype's " Life ot Parker," i. p. 208. RICHARD CHEYNEY. 1/3 years of Mary's reign, and is also said to have received from her and King Philip a canonry of Gloucester in 1558, to which he was admitted only three days before her death, 1 though others, 2 and with more probability, give the following year as the date of that preferment He was down in Cecil's list of divines who, in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, were without preferment, which could not have been so if he had been a canon of Gloucester. His own explanation, too, of his presence at Mass is inconsistent with his performance of sacerdotal functions, since, as he said, 3 it was lawful, under certain circumstances, for a Christian man to be present even at an idolatrous service, though abhorring it in his heart, and he grounded this opinion on the precedent of Naaman's young maid. Such, probably, was the extent of his conformity an extent to which many Roman Catholics in the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth proceeded, when they went to their parish churches, and took part, outwardly at least, in the Protestant worship, as being the religion of the queen and the law. Cheyney's learning, combined with his celibacy and the similarity of his views on the Real Presence with those of the queen, were strong recommendations to her favour, besides which his early youth having been spent at the Court had obtained for him many influential friends. In 1560 he received a canonry at Westminster, and was pressed to accept a bishopric, but had no ambition that way, preferring a lowlier sphere ; for whatever his defects as a theologian may have been, he possessed some great characteristics of 1 Cooper's ' ; Athenae Cantabrigienses," i. p. 400. 2 Le Neve's "Fasti," ed. Hardy, vol. i. p. 447. 3 State Papers, Elizabeth. October 20, 1568. This statement of what he had delivered in a sermon was one of the charges preferred against him to the Privy Council by his enemies. Possibly they per- verted his words. 1/4 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. a true Christian, being of a singularly humble and unambitious spirit, and, what is rarer still, having no love of money. It is true he had accepted a stall at Westminster for a queen's offers cannot be refused but it would be worth to him only 10 a year, since he did not intend to reside on it. He had a small benefice in the country, the Vicarage of Halford, Warwickshire. It was worth but ten guineas a year, and he had appointed a curate to serve it at a stipend of 10, because his intention was to itinerate the surrounding parishes, which were in a state of gross spiritual darkness, and preach the gospel to them ; for, as he told Cecil, the harvest was great, but the labourers were very few. 1 From this humble but most honourable work, for which he was so well fitted, he was, by the importunity of friends, called to an office for which he was not fitted at all. The see thus pressed upon him was that of Gloucester, to which he was consecrated on April 19, 1562. It was one of the poorest in England, its value being but 300 a year, 2 so the See of Bristol was given him to hold " in commendam," and Arch- bishop Parker gave him also the "spiritualities" of that diocese, with visitatorial powers, so that he was, in effect, bishop of both sees. He now resigned his canonry at Westminster. Bishop Cheyney must be credited with the best intentions as to the discharge of his episcopal functions, and the fulfilment of the vow made at his consecration to " banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God's Word," in which, at least in his opinion, the cities of Gloucester and Bristol abounded. He was foredoomed to failure, and if ever the hand of authority had placed a round man in a square hole, it was when Cheyney was sent to Gloucester as 1 "Parker Correspondence," p. 138, note. 2 This is the value assigned to it in Cecil's list of 1559. RICHARD CHEYNEY. 175- its spiritual overseer. In the first place, he was regarded as one who possessed Romish sympathies, even if he did not hold Romish opinions, though in that matter the ordinary Protestant intellect could scarcely differentiate between his views on the Real Presence and those of the "papists." Besides, even if he had not exactly conformed to the Roman Church, the Puritans regarded him as " a papist/' and also as a "free-wilier," his views on predestination being opposed to Calvin's, and on both these accounts hated and opposed him. His first crusade was against "the rashe and ignoraunt" preachers, as he called them, and he applied to the archbishop to help him. But Parker, instead of doing so, deprived him of his charge of the spiritualities of Bristol after but a few years' tenure of them. The loss of income and the slight thus passed on him made his position unbearable, and he expressed to Cecil his wish to resign his bishopric, having had, after eighteen months of episcopacy, "ynoughe of lordyng," which, he declared, he found to be only " splendid misery." x When, five years afterwards, he applied for the Bishopric of Chichester, Parker thus wrote to Cecil to oppose his suit : " I would be lothe yt should fall uppon one such body As I am enformed by his ffrendes make suite for yt. We of this order Learne by experience what rule Glocester maketh in his people. He is so old that he wold bring his people to his contemplacoiis, w c h he Laboreth to do, but spieth that he shall never, and thereuppon wisheth he were discharged w c h he hath pretended a long time, but he meaneth another thinge." 2 Bishop Cheyney's labours to bring his people to his contemplations so deeply offended some of them, that forty of the Puritans of Bristol accused him to 1 Lansdowne MSS., vi. 72. September 17, 1563. 2 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xlvii. 43. Date, August 19, 1568. 1/6 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. the Privy Council for having preached " very strange, pernicious and corrupt doctrines as well to the de- facing of Christe's sincere Gospell and Godes undefiled religion, as to the no small hassarding of the cofhon tranquillite." l It appears from their statement that the bishop in three sermons had declared the authority of " Mr. Calvin " as an expositor of Scripture was inferior to that of the Fathers, and spoke of the theo- logians of the day as being only " goode to picke a sallyt out of nowe and then." As to the right way of interpreting the Scriptures, they quoted the follow- ing passage from one of his sermons, which in their eyes was rank heresy : " Scriptures, Scriptures do you crye, be not to hastie for so the heretyckes alwaies sayed and had the Scripture. I wolde aske this question. I have to do with a heretyke, I bringe Scripture agaynst him and he wyll confess yt to be Scripture, But he wyll denie the sense that I bringe yt for. How now ! how shall this be tryed ? Marye ! by consent of {fathers onelie and not by others." Though the accusers included the two sheriffs and two aldermen of the city, the charges came to nothing. Whereupon they let loose their preachers, who railed against him from the pulpit of his own cathedral, of whom one, a minister named Northbrooke, descended to such personal abuse that the bishop was advised to bring an action against him for libel. The old prelate savoured much of worldly wisdom. ' The accusinge of any man," he wrote, " hath not hitherto cost me ij (l in the lawe. I love neither to sue nor to be sued." So he meekly bowed his head to the storm, and endured the " to badd abusing " of himself, as he phrased it, with the patience of a philosopher. By a strange fate, the Roman Catholics abused him as much if not more than the Puritans did, and 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xlviii. 16. The sermons had been preached August 22, 29, and September 31, 1568. HUGH JONES. 1/7 the famous Campian, who had been ordained by Cheyney, in a letter he wrote to him exhorting- him to return to the Church of Rome, described him as being the object of " loathing to the heretics, and of shame to the Catholics." * His demeanour in refusing to subscribe the Articles has already been mentioned in the life of Bishop Guest. His life ended in poverty and troubles, for the collector of his rents embezzled them instead of paying the queen the subsidies and firstfruits due to her, and in 1576 Bishop Cheyney was suddenly called on to pay 500. He was unable to do so, and process was served on him from the exchequer, and all his property seized by the sheriffs, who put an execution in his house. He died three years afterwards, on April 25, 1579, and, it was said, a Romanist ; but this was merely a malicious inven- tion, for the widow of his successor declared that, to her own knowledge, he died a Protestant. 2 HUGH JONES. 1508-1574. BISHOP OF LLANDAFF, 1566. BISHOP HUGH JONES graduated B.C.L. at Oxford, in 1541, and in the reign of Mary held the Vicarage of Banwell, Somersetshire, a prebend of Llandaff, and the Rectory of Tredannock in that diocese, of which also he was consecrated the bishop on May 5, 1566. At first Archbishop Parker raised objections to the appointment, which he afterwards withdrew on hearing a better account of him. 3 1 Strype's " Annals," II. i. p. 159. 2 Fuller's " Church History," ed. Brewer, iv. p. 404. 3 "Parker Correspondence," pp. 257-259. N LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. Our knowledge of him as a ruler of a diocese, comes to us from a report of its state which he made to the Privy Council on January 26, 1570, and which shows him to have been a painstaking prelate, alive to the spiritual destitution of the souls committed to his oversight, and doing his best to relieve it. He had, he said, " dylligentlye and carefullye travelyd throughoute his dyocese," and had found the people very conformable both as to coming to church, in which he found " none dysobedient," and as to " receavynge of the Comunyon " he found " every man obedyent savynge " two. His clergy were very poor, there being but four " of any incumes worth specyfying." These were the parsons of Rogynte, Lantarvan, Portskuet, and Lurgan. Three of them did " dyspende yerelye ffortye poundes," the other one, the " parson of Portskuet, syxty poundes." Besides these, there were no livings that could main- tain a preacher. No churches were "voyde of curattes," but there was a great scarcity " of good and lerned Curattes," the cause of this being the meagre stipends paid them by the impropriators, 11 dyvrs men of Worshippe and gentelmen " of the diocese, by which mild term he designated the Church harpies. Bishop Jones, though a poor man, did what many richer prelates, both then and since, never did, for he put his hand into his purse and, at his " owne costes and chardge," procured suitable men to preach in his diocese, preaching therein also himself. 1 He died in 1574, and was buried at Mathern on November 15. He died poor, which was scarcely to be wondered at, for though he had a "commendam " or two, the total income of his see was but " eight score pounds, or thereabouts." Such, at least, was the statement made by his widow in the petition she 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. Ixvi. 29. Letter dated January 26, 1569-70. NICHOLAS ROBINSON. 179 presented to the Privy Council, to be allowed, by reason of her poverty, to occupy the episcopal residence at Mathern during the^ vacancy of the NICHOLAS ROBINSON. 1528-1585. BISHOP OF BANGOR, 1566. BISHOP NICHOLAS ROBINSON was born at Aber- conway, and in 1548 graduated B.A. at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he became fellow and vice-president. In 1557 he was ordained acolyte, sub-deacon, deacon, and priest by Dr. Glynne, Bishop of Bangor, under a special faculty from Cardinal Pole, a circumstance which makes the statement of his having suffered as a Protestant under Mary highly improbable. At any rate, under her successor he was a good Protestant. Archbishop Parker licensed him to preach, and made him his chaplain, and he was beneficed with the Archdeaconry of Merioneth and the rectories of Shepperton, Witney, and Northop, the last a sinecure. In the Convocation of 1563 he voted against the liturgical alterations proposed by the Puritans ; in 1 564 he attended the queen to Cambridge, and in 1 566 to Oxford, in which year he received the Bishopric ot Bangor, and was consecrated on October 20. His appointment was objected to because he was a Welshman, the opponents declaring that the Welsh " band so together that the Bishop can do not as he would for his alliance sake." In point of fact, however, as Archbishop Parker discovered, his 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xciv. December 2, 1574. l8o LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. appointment to Bangor was much desired by his countrymen. 1 Owing to the small value of the see, he held all his benefices " in commendam." Within a year from his consecration he thus re- ported to Sir W. Cecil the state of his diocese : " But touching y e Welshe paeoples receavinge of y e Ghospell I find by my small experience among them here, y fc ignorance contineweth many in y c dregges of super- stition, which did grow chefely upon y c blyndnes of the clergie ioyned with greedines of getting in so base a cuntrey, and also upon y e closing up of God's woorde from them in an unknowen tounge. Of the which harmes though y e one be remedied by y e great benefite of our graciouse quene and parleament yet the other remayneth without hope of redresse ; for the most part of y e priestes are to olde (they saye) now to be put to schole." 2 Like other bishops, he was much employed in secular work, and that of a sort scarcely befitting his position as a chief pastor of the Church. To examine rebels, to be on the commission of assize for the trial of criminals, and to see to the equipment and despatch of horse soldiers were amongst his duties. But all this multifariousness did not make him neglect his episcopal office, and so zealous was he against the Roman Catholics in his diocese, that at the end of eleven years he reported that there were no recusants at all in it, and only one priest, and he an old and very poor man. 3 Notwithstanding, he himself was accused to the Privy Council of being "a papist, or liking of that waye," and wrote two (separate) letters to Leicester and Walsingham in indignant repudiation of that " haynouse crime," as he termed a Romeward tendency. 1 " Parker Correspondence," pp. 259-261. 2 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xliv. 27. October 7, 1567. 3 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cxviii. 8, 564. November 3> I577- RICHARD BARNES. l8l His letter to Walsingham gives us a glimpse into his episcopate. It is too long to be given in full, but the gist of it was that he himself was a constant preacher and expositor of Scripture, as also were his lour chaplains, " zelous and Learned M rs of Art, who through ye diocees teach Christes trueth and Impugn papistrie, y* chaos of false religion." He himself had " bene divers tymes in daunger of his life in suppres- sing superstitions/' and executing the law against those who practised them. He concluded by deny- ing that there was any ground for the charge either in his " doctrine or doynges." x In point of fact, Bishop Robinson was a sound Churchman, a firm upholder of the queen's ecclesiastical supremacy, and one who ordered himself strictly by the law. He died February 13, 1585, and left by his wife five sons, of whom one, Hugh, became headmaster of Winchester. RICHARD BARNES. 1532-1587- BISHOP OF NOTTINGHAM, 1567; CARLISLE, 1570; DURHAM, 1577. BISHOP BARNES was born at Bould, Lancashire, and graduated B.A. at Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1554, having become a Fellow by royal mandate two years previously. His taking his M. A. degree, in 1 5 56, would show him to have conformed to Romanism at that time, but if so, he renounced it at the re-establish- ment of Protestantism, and in 1561 was made Chancellor and Canon of York, and Rector of Stone- grave, Stokesley, and, after he became bishop, of Romaldkirk, in that county. But he neither resided 1 " State Papers," Elizabeth cliii. 667. May 28, 1582. 182 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. at his cures nor placed fit men there, so that after he became a bishop and desired to hold Stokesley " in commendam," his diocesan, Grindal, wrote to Parker to oppose it. " I pray your Grace stay for Stokesley. It is a market town, and hath been very ill served ever sith he had it. I would a preacher to be resident upon it." l Barnes never forget this " stay for Stokesley," and when the opportunity arrived in Grindal's disgrace, he " fed fat his ancient grudge." He was consecrated Suffragan- Bishop of Notting- ham on March 9, 1567. Though Archbishop Grindal had put a spoke in his wheel, others were solicitous for his advancement. The Earl of Sussex, then Lord President of the North, was so delighted with the lectures on the " Revelation " which Barnes delivered in York Cathedral, that he recommended him to Cecil for preferment. " Though some think him over- vehement, he shows great learning, and touches the abuses [of Romanism] as deeply as any I have heard, and passes not the bounds of an honest and zealous preacher. He has laboured to understand the par- ticular absurd doings of every pope, and the causes of introducing their frivolous traditions, which he liberally utters, and has more attentive audience than hitherto." He concludes by noting his "little living," great hospitality, and liberality to the poor. 2 Three years afterwards, Sir Thomas Gargrave, a member of the Northern Council, recommended him for the Bishopric of Carlisle as " a meet man, both for sound doctrine, holiness, and liberality of house- keeping, and one whose " like " it would be " hard to get into that place." It rather diminishes the strength of this recommendation that the giver of it subsequently recommended the same person for the See of Durham, only " to be rydde off him." 3 1 " Grindal's Remains," p. 354. March 14, 1575. 2 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, Addenda, vol. xiv. 67, pp. 72, 3. 3 See " Life of Bishop May," p. 250, note. RICHARD BARNES. 183 He was elected Bishop of Carlisle on June 25, 1570, receiving at the same time permission to hold his rectories and Chancellorship " in commendam," with the promise of the Rectory of Romaldkirk when it should be vacant. In 1571 he visited his diocese, and wrote his report. " Praised be the Lord," were his words of self-laudation, "who, even in this utmost corner, amongst these savage people, has mightily prospered his gospel and my simple ministry ; I dare assure you that there is not one within this little diocese that openly repines against religion and refuses to communicate or come to church, or that shuns sermons, or openly speaks against the established religion." l Rose-coloured as was the view he took of his diocese, the admissions he made go far to qualify it. For "some, indeed, were not reclaimed in all things," but were only " in a good way." Four parishes, under the wing of a great nobleman, stubbornly refused to conform, and others, doubtless, would have followed their example had they dared. In 1574 he became a Councillor for the North, and on April 5, 1577, was elected to the Bishopric of Durham. Grindal, now Archbishop of Canterbury, again opposed him, but he was in disgrace at the time, and his remonstrance was in vain. In his new sphere Barnes so rigorously executed the law against recusants, that in the county of Northumberland, none, except a few women, refused to come to church or receive the Communion. "I have driven," he exclaimed, in a burst of triumph, " out of that countrie the reconciling preestes and massers, whereof there was score ; they are now gone to Lancashire and Yorkshire ; but we are ridde of them." 2 This whole- sale transference of obnoxious clerics from one diocese to another he absurdly called " reforming the North," 1 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, Addenda, vol. xix. 84, p. 367. - Lansdowne M3S., xxv. 78. Date, February II, 1577-78. 1 84 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. and it is a specimen of the violence of his episcopal rule of his flock. His arguments with them were the cogent ones of force, which, as he declared, had " wroughte pannictim timorem in their mindes and in the clergie a good rediness to applie theire travells to their callinges." The county of Durham, however, proved too much for him, while, as for the cathedral, it was " Augice Stabuhim" to " pourge which " was a more than Herculean labour. However, he did his best to banish " poperie, superstition, and the remaynents of Idolatrie," with the result that he " marvellously exasperated the people of that country." He was a bigot of the first water, and allowed himself to brand the Romanists of his diocese as a body of men amongst whom " there was neither feor, faith, virtue, knowledge of God, nor regard of any religion." This was said of the men in his diocese of Carlisle ; the inhabitants of Durham were, if possible, worse. It was not likely that a bishop holding these sentiments would have much pastoral success. Nor had he. The Government employed him largely, but though the work they gave him to do was congenial, it was by no means apostolical. At one time it was to search for vestments and copes ; at another to track and apprehend "divers fugitive traitors lurking in corners," while in 1582 he was on a commission for the discovery and punishment of con- venticles. Though zealous against the Pope and his adherents, he had small sympathy with evangelistic movements, such as the prophesy ings, characterizing the desire felt by many clergymen and their con- gregations for a greater knowledge of Scripture as being but " the maleapertnes of Brainlesse men." To his clergy he was a despot, and to his tenants a harsh and greedy landlord. The parson of Simon- burn he deprived for non-payment of tenths, 1 and 1 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, Addenda, vol. xxv. no, p. 547. RICHARD BARNES. 185 Ralph Lever, a learned divine who was Master of Sherburn Hospital, made grievous complaints of him. 1 One Burbage, he was a layman, accused the bishop of dishonestly detaining his rents and fees. From Barnes's own letters it would seem that bribery and corruption were among the many grave charges brought against him. He denied everything, as such men usually do, but public opinion was against him. One charge he could not deny. His Chancellor was his brother : " a very vile man, unclean, and an extortioner." * The diocese of Durham rang with his crimes, at which the bishop in reality connived, but, as Bernard Gilpin, the " Apostle of the North," told him in a visitation sermon, his alleged ignorance of his brother's wickedness was no excuse, since he both could have known it and should have known it. The bishop took the reproof in good part. " Father Gilpin," he said, as he took him by the hand, "I acknowledge you are fitter to be Bishop of Durham than I to be parson of Houghton." 3 Bishop Barnes died on August 24, 1587, and was buried in the cathedral choir. He had been twice married, and left several children. He alienated the episcopal manors by ten long leases, and Dean Matthew, writing to Walsingham, testified to the deplorable state, from a religious point of view, in which he left his diocese. 4 1 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, Addenda, vol. clxxii. 48, p. 122. 2 Strype's " Annals," III. i. p. 680. 3 " Life of B. Gilpin." 4 Strype's "Annals," III. ii. p. 468. 1 86 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. RICHARD CURTEIS. 1532-1582. BISHOP OF CHICHESTER, 1570. BISHOP RICHARD CURTEIS was a native of Lincoln- shire, and was elected a Lady Margaret's Scholar of St. John's College, Cambridge, November 6, 1550. He graduated B.A., and became fellow of his college in 1553, and subsequently preacher there. When the queen visited Cambridge in 1564 he was one of the proctors, and in the same year was appointed preacher before the University. He was a strong opponent of Puritanism, which at this time had acquired great strength in many of the colleges, especially in St. John's, where, in 1565, the fellows and students to the number of three hundred tore up the vestments and copes, discontinued the use of the surplice and hood, and one of them, the great Puritan, William Fulke, celebrated the Holy Communion after a fashion of his own. Curteis withstood these vagaries and exhibited articles against the Master of the College, to whose con- nivance they were attributed. His zeal in the matter recommended him to the queen, who made him her chaplain, and in 1566 gave him the Deanery of Chichester. In 1568 Parker recommended him to Cecil for the See of Chichester as "an^honest learned man who," as he trusted, " would well supplie it to Code's hono r , Arid to the Queenes Contentacon." l It remained vacant for eighteen months longer, and was then given to Curteis, who was accordingly con- secrated on May 21, 1570. His diocese was no bed of roses, for it was full of 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xlvii. 43. August 19, 1568. RICHARD CURTEIS. l8/ Romanists, and contained, moreover, many filthy fanatics of the Family of Love, an antinomian sect who regarded their election by God as exempting them from all moral obligations. One of these was the curate of Brighthelmstone, whom Bishop Cheyney presently suspended. The clergy were, with hardly an exception, entirely devoid of religious knowledge, and at that time a " learned sermon " was a rarity in Sussex. To remedy this the bishop not only preached constantly himself, but at his own cost employed twenty learned and godly men to preach the gospel throughout the diocese, and also trained forty more in scriptural knowledge that they might be able to preach to any ordinary congregation. In his proceedings against the Romanists he was rather too zealous, for at his Visitation in 1577 he summoned before him forty-nine gentry, some of them magistrates, for non-attendance at church, possession of prohibited books, and other like offences. 1 They retaliated by thirty-eight articles of accusation to the Privy Council against him. He was, they set forth, " quarrelsome " and " disorderly " and a " licenser of May games ; " he prohibited honest persons from the Holy Communion uncanonically ; he " kept benefices without incumbents, and put the incomes into his own purse ; " he was guilty of "simony," by selling livings in his own patronage. Several of the charges related to the secularities of his office, which were many, and some curious, as his right to all wreckage on the coast of Sussex, and it followed that there were many persons who had, or fancied they had, a grievance against him. Of these one had been wronged about a " bailiwick," another in his "right of commonage," and a third had been unfairly treated in his claim to the registrarship of the diocese. The Bishop made his answers, 2 which disposed of 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cxii. 13. ~ Ibid., cxii. 30. 1 88 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. all the serious charges, but he did not altogether clear himself from those brought against him for the im- proper performance of the duties of his temporalities, for which he was reproved by the Council. His enemies next accused him of being publicly intoxicated on April 6, 1577, at the General Quarter Sessions at Chichester, when dining at an alderman's house he " was soe ffarre overcome with drincke as was too unseamlye to behold." l He had, however, no difficulty in disproving this scandalous charge by the evidence of six other guests, who under their hands and seals deposed to the exact contrary. They then assailed the bishop through his brother, Edward Curteis, Vicar of Cuckfield, a fair object of attack, since, if the articles preferred against him were true, he was a strangely wicked clergyman for any age : " Void of all learning and discretion, a scoffer at singing of Psalms, a seeker to witches and a drunkard." 2 The attack succeeded, and he was deprived not only of his benefices but of his orders. Bishop Curteis died in August, 1582. He came to his bishopric a poor man, but he left it poorer still, dying a bankrupt and in debt to the queen. The revenues of his see were small, and he had spent them in promoting the spread of religion, in hospitality, and in maintaining the episcopal residences in proper repair. He was married, and left a widow. 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cxiv. 8. 2 " Athense Cantabrigienses," i. p. 457. THOMAS COOPER. 189 THOMAS COOPER. 1519-1594. BISHOP OF LINCOLN, 1571 ; WINCHESTER, 1584. BISHOP COOPER, the son of a tailor, was born in Oxford, and educated there as a chorister at the school attached to Magdalen College, and afterwards at the college itself, where he graduated B.A. in 1539. He was elected fellow in 1540 and master of the school in 1543. In 1546 he resigned his fellowship, and soon afterwards married, but was most un- fortunate in his choice, for Mrs. Cooper was both a Xantippe and a Messalina, at one time throwing his precious manuscripts in the fire, and at another dis- gracing him by the most shameless infidelities. At the accession of Mary he resigned his school, and having taken his degree as Bachelor of Medicine in 1566, practised as a physician in his native city. He also devoted his spare time to literature, and two of his works earned for him considerable fame. The first of these was his "Thesaurus," published in 1565, and commonly known as " Cooper's Dictionary." It was, however, but an expansion of a work of the same name, the "Thesaurus" of R. Stevens, with large additions. The other work, published in 1573, was " A Brief Exposition of the Old Testament Lessons," "set forth for the better help and instruction of the unlearned." Archbishop Parker thought so highly of it, that he requested Lord Burghley to advise the Privy Council to recommend it. 1 The queen, too, was so much pleased with his " Thesaurus," that the year after its publication she gave him the Deanery 1 " Parker Correspondence," p. 463. LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. of Christ Church, where he had the illustrious Philip Sidney as his pupil, 1 and in 1569 added to it that of Gloucester. On February 14, 15/1, he was con- secrated Bishop of Lincoln. His rule at Oxford had been noted for its severity against the Roman Catholics there, whom he is said to have "extirpated." His episcopate was marked by the same feature. He was for compelling the Romanists not only to attend church but to receive the Sacrament, or else go to prison, and wrote to Walsingham urging the adoption of his views by the Government. But the worldly statesman was more imbued with the spirit of the gospel than the Christian bishop, and rejected his advice. " He thoughte it not conveniente," he replied, " to straine such persons as have offended unto the Communion." On reflection Bishop Cooper himself admitted that incarceration might be deferred till "some reasonable time of instruction " had been given, but after that to the Lord's Table they must go, or else to her Majesty's gaols. In the same spirit he, on another occasion, proposed to the Privy Council, in the case of certain stubborn recusants, that one or two hundred of them, such as were " Lustic men, strong and well able to labour," should be transported to Flanders for that purpose, while the weaker ones who were left behind should, as he phrased it, be " put in some fears." 2 Possibly this expression meant the same as his brother- bishop Aylmer's of being "shewn the racke." The Privy Council, however, did not avail themselves of Bishop Cooper's suggestion. In those days female recusants were not spared, and the State papers reveal to us the eagerness which Bishop Cooper, in discharge of his duty, dis- played for their apprehension. For a certain Mrs. 1 "Parker Correspondence," p. 317. 2 Strype's " Annals," III., i. p. 348. THOMAS COOPER. 19! Price, whose husband was already in prison for recusancy, having escaped his vigilance and got safely to London, he wrote to Walsingham, re- questing that she should be sent back, that he might send her to prison to join her husband. 1 In 1584 he was translated to Winchester, his appointment being confirmed on March 23. That see was worth 2500 a year, but when firstfruits, tenths, subsidies, benevolences, fees, annuities, gifts, and other similar exactions and robberies were deducted, there remained to the bishop an income of but 398 9^. 2d. The private gifts alone amounted to 798 6s, 8d., the chief recipients of which were Leicester, Walsingham, and the queen. 2 Notwithstanding this, he was accused of covetous- ness, and he had to write to Burghley to deny the charge. " I thancke God I ame out of debt, and so I meane to kepe me," 3 were the words that concluded his letter. He was chosen to preach the sermon on the queen's visit to St. Paul's to return thanks for the destruction of the Spanish Armada ; but the day was changed, and Piers was the preacher. From the accession of Elizabeth there had ema- nated from the Puritan printing press a series of tracts written against the Church of England, but chiefly directed against the bishops and clergy. These were afterwards published in a collective form in the " Parte of a Register," a bulky volume of 547 pages, which was the Puritan declaration against episcopacy and its allied tenets. A reply to it had been made in 1587 by Dr. John Bridges, Dean of Salisbury, and afterwards Bishop of Oxford, in a still bulkier treatise of over fourteen hundred pages, en- titled, " A Defence of the Government Established." 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cxliv. 26. Date, November 14, 1580. 2 LansdowneMSS., xxviii. 73 ; Strype's " Annals," III. ii. 261-263. 3 Ibid., 1. ii. 61. Date, July 3, 1587. I Q2 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. This book brought Martin Marprelate upon the scene, who in his " Epistle to the Terrible Prieste of the Convocation House," made a furious attack on the bishops and clergy, whom he labelled and libelled as "bishops of the divell" and "vicars of hell," and who were alliteratively summed up as " proud, popish, presumptuous, profane, paultrie, peltrie, pernicious prelates." Bishop Cooper replied by the publication, in 1589, of his "Admonition to the People of Eng- land," a work which made him the object of Mar- prelate's hatred, who attacked him in his venomous libel, " Ha' ye any Work for Cooper ? " Bishop Cooper, however, having, as was generally thought except by the Puritans, disposed of all that needed an answer, and disdaining to answer mere scurrilities, retired from the controversy, which was continued by other, but far inferior, combatants. He died April 29, 1594, leaving a widow and two daughters. WILLIAM BRADBRIDGE. -1578- BISHOP OF EXETER, 1571. BISHOP BRADBRIDGE was born in Sussex, 1 and graduated B.A. at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1528, and was also tutor there. On the accession of Queen Mary he went abroad, but returning, was made Prebendary of Salisbury in 1555. In 1562 Bishop Barlow collated him to a canonry of Chiches- ter and to the Chancellorship of the cathedral. In the Convocation of 1563, though he had been a Mass-priest in the reign of Mary, he sided with the 1 Cecil MSS., Hatfield: October 27, 1564. EDMUND FREAKE. 193 Puritans in their sweeping vote against ritual. In 1563 he became Dean of Salisbury, and on March 1 8, 1571, was consecrated Bishop of Exeter, holding his preferments "in commendam," and also the Rectories of Newton Ferrers and Lezant, both in his diocese. Divers opinions obtained among the inhabitants of Devon and Cornwall. The schoolmaster of Liskeard was a sort of " rationalist," and denied the good of oaths, affirming that to swear on a rush or a fly was as good as doing so on the Bible. 1 Bishop Brad- bridge tried to persuade him to renounce his " heresies," but not succeeding, left him to be dealt with by her Majesty's judges at the assizes. He also made some sincere but fruitless endeavours to bring the recusants and Puritans to church. That done, he abandoned all further exertions to persuade men, and retired to his rectory at Newton Ferrers, where he exercised small hospitality. In 1576, his old deanery of Sarum being vacant, he applied for it, being quite tired of his bishopric. He did not obtain it, and died June 27, 1578, heavily in debt to the queen. EDMUND FREAKE. 1516-1591. BISHOP OF ROCHESTER, 1572 ; NORWICH, 1575 ; WORCESTER, 1584. BISHOP FREAKE is supposed to have been a native of Essex. He was educated at Cambridge, and became an Augustinian canon of Waltham Abbey, at the dissolution whereof in 1540 he received a pension of 5 in requital of his signing the deed of 1 Strype's "Annals," II. ii. p. 33. O 194 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. surrender. On June 1 8, 1544, he was ordained both deacon and priest by Bishop Bonner. There is nothing to chronicle of him till the reign of Elizabeth, when he figures as a pluralist From 1565 to 1572 he received canonries at Windsor and Canterbury, the Rectories of Foulmire and Purleigh, and the Deaneries of Rochester and Salisbury. He was also Lent preacher, chaplain to the queen, and, in 1571, an Ecclesiastical Commissioner. He was consecrated Bishop of Rochester on March 9, 1572, and made High Almoner, and was translated to Norwich in 1575. His wife appears to have ruled the diocese, and the servants called her " M rs Busshopp," and declared that if she wanted anything done, "my lord" must straightway do it, " will he nil he." The poor prelate, in times of extreme depression at this treatment, confided his griefs to his own servants, especially to one Mr. Absolon, to whom he " diverse tymes com- playned " that if he did not do as his wife wanted him "she wold make hym weary of his liffe." Persons calling at the palace to see the bishop on business, diocesan or otherwise, were first interviewed by " M rs Bushopp," and we have it on the testimony of another domestic of the name of Walker, that if anybody came without a present she would " looke on him as the devill lookes over Lyncolne," and woe betided Bishop Freake if he gave even a friendly glance to any one on whom his far than better half had chosen to " looke awry." The good people of Norfolk declared that there was only one religious person in Norwich Palace, their definition of such a character being one who "loved and favoured the gospel and frequented sermons." This phoenix was not Mrs. Freake, nor even the bishop himself, but his steward, a certain Mr. Chamberlayne, and Mrs. Freake, who was not " religious," and detested those who pretended to be EDMUND FREAKE. 195 better than she was, left her husband no peace till the too religious steward was "thrust out of doors." It was probably this uxorious weakness that caused Sir Thomas Heneage to describe him in a letter to Walsingham as " the foolish bishop." l These reports of Mrs. Freake's despotical sway were more than backstairs gossip ; at any rate, they were generally believed in the diocese, and were thought sufficiently serious to be reported 2 to the Privy Council. His dispute with the chancellor of his diocese, Dr. Becon, needs but to be referred to. He deprived him of his office ; but a commission appointed by the Privy Council in 1578 to try the case, despite the protest of the bishop, decreed his restoration to it. Many of his clergy also were very refractory, and some insub- ordinate. One of them, who, though a tradesman, was curate of a church in Norwich, and had been, not improperly, convented by the bishop for de- faming the Liturgy and refusing to wear the surplice, boldly denied his jurisdiction. Another minister of Norwich named Hervey openly repudiated his diocesan by declaring that his consecration was of " the Devill." Though Bishop Freake may not have been a lover of sermons, he had considerable administrative powers, and was an approver of a strict parochial system, and this, since the Calvinistical ministers of the diocese were striving for a system of independency in their respective cures, only increased his unpopularity. He it was who propounded to Convocation a scheme for reviving the ancient order of rural deans, which was vehemently opposed by the Puritans. Bishop Freake's episcopate at Norwich was closed 1 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, Addenda, vol. xxv. 119, November 5, 1578: Report of Sir P. Parker and others to the Council. 2 Ibid., vol. xxv. 113. 196 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. by a dismal tragedy, when on September 18, 1583, he tried, sentenced, and condemned to be burnt at the stake one John Lewes, a poor, half-crazy Arian, 1 who called himself Abdoit. At this time he was so weary of his position that on August 30, just eighteen days before the burning of Lewes, he wrote to Burghley requesting " further- ance of remoove unto some place of more quyet ; " otherwise he wished to be discharged and lead a private life. 2 His request was granted, and he was elected to the Bishopric of Worcester on November 2, 1584. His episcopate there was uneventful. He died on March 21, 1591, leaving a widow and several children. WILLIAM HUGHES. 1537-1600. BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH, 1573. BISHOP HUGHES was a native of Carnarvonshire, and was a Sizar of Queens' College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1557, in which year he was elected Fellow of Christ's College, and eight years afterwards Lady Margaret's Preacher. In 1567, being then a minister at Leicester, he so greatly displeased his congregation by declaring that the hell into which Christ descended was not the abode of the damned, that they complained to the University of Cambridge and desired his removal. The matter was duly investigated, but no definite decision seems to have been come to. He is supposed, by Strype, to have been the person 1 Kennett MSS., British Museum, 482, p, 38. 2 Lansdowne MSS., xxxviii. (83). WILLIAM HUGHES. 1 97 thus referred to by Bishop R. Davies in a letter to Cecil. "I have herde that one Hughes sueth for Landaf, a man to me unknowene, but by diverse I have herde of hym that he is utt r ly unlerned in divinytye and not able to tender a reason of hys faeth." 1 It is, however, inconceivable that a University preacher could have been so ignorant as to merit such a cen- sure. In 1573 he was preferred to the Bishopric of St. Asaph, though seventeen days before the man- date for his election was issued the Archbishop had written a cautious warning against it. "All is not gold that glittereth. Look well whom you do admit into Asaph, that you be not beguiled." 2 But the advice was not taken, and Hughes was consecrated on December 13. It had been well, in the interests of the Church, if the Primate's advice had been taken, for Bishop Hughes fleeced rather than fed his flock, and was, probably, the greatest pluralist that the English Protestant Church has ever known. At the time of his consecration he held the archdeaconry and ten other benefices, all of which he held " in commendam." He afterwards added six more, thus making a total of sixteen, nine of which were sinecures. Out of his impropriate benefices he gave but a starvation pittance to the incumbents who did the work ; those that were in his own gift he sold ; the episcopal manors he leased out for long terms to his wife, children, sisters, and cousins, and compelled the Dean and Chapter, who seem to have been his tools, to do the same. The dean, one Bankes, was a youth of but two and twenty, and non-resident, thus virtually a cipher, and the bishop's chaplains, possessing themselves of the Chapter seals, induced or compelled that body to confirm such leases as their diocesan wished. 1 Lansdowne MSS., viii. 75. Date of letter, 1566. 2 "Parker Correspondence," p. 446. 1 98 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. His clergy he squeezed dry at the Visitations, not only by rigidly exacting the customary fees, but making them defray the cost of the diet of himself and his attendants. The sums paid for penances were not sent, as they ought to have been, to the parishes where the offences had been committed, but were retained by the officers of the bishop, and a large part of them doubtless found their way into his purse. Moreover, to prevent those who had paid them from knowing whether they had been over- charged or not, he refused, in violation of the canons, to allow a table of fees to be placed in his Consistory Court. l His incomings were unrighteously great, and his outgoings were scandalously small. He entirely neglected hospitality and charity, for the better sort were not entertained at his table, and the wants of the poor went unrelieved. Indeed, he was oblivious of common honesty, for though it was his bounden duty to keep the chancel of his cathedral in repair, his successor, Morgan, found it roofless. He left behind him a large fortune, which he bequeathed to his only daughter, wife of Thomas Mostyn, from whom the present Lord Mostyn descends. From a report he sent to Archbishop Whitgift external conformity prevailed in his diocese, there being no persons who neglected to come to church. 2 Perhaps this was the reason of his being thought of at the close of his life for the Bishopric of Exeter. 3 Bishop Hughes died on November 18, 1600. We know of nothing to set against Parker's unfavourable character of this prelate, unless it be his advising Morgan to translate the Bible into Welsh. 1 Strype's "Annals," III. ii. pp. 471, 472. 2 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cxviii. 10, Nov. 4, 1577. 8 Ibid., vol. cclix. 46, p. 247, June, 1596. UN1Y JOHN PIERS. 199 WILLIAM BLETHIN. 1539-1590. BISHOP OF LLANDAFF, 1575. BISHOP BLETHIN was a Welshman, and graduated B.C.L. at Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1562. He was a wonderful pluralist, holding stalls at York, St. David's, and Llandaff, the Archdeaconry of Breck- nock, and the Rectories of Rogiett, in Monmouthshire, and Sunningwell, in Berkshire. Though in the diocese of St. David's he was an archdeacon, a commissary and a canon, he is certified as being " non-resident." * He was consecrated Bishop of Llandaff on April 17, 1575. He duly visited his diocese, certified recusants, searched for and seized Romish priests, which is all of any moment that can be recorded of him, except his death, which happened on October 15, 1590. JOHN PIERS. 1523-1594- BISHOP OF ROCHESTER, 1576; SALISBURY, 1577; YORK, 1589. ARCHBISHOP PIERS was born at South Hinksey, Berkshire, and of respectable parentage. He was educated at the Grammar School of Magdalen, Oxford, entering at the college as a demy in 1542, where he graduated B.A. in 1545, and became Fellow 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. Ixvi. 26. Date, 1570. 2OO LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. in 1548, and afterwards Divinity reader. In 1558 he was appointed to the Rectory of Quainton, in Buckinghamshire, 1 which he held till 1567. The story is told of him ' 2 that when there he used to drink to excess in ale-houses, but that a priest, to whom he confessed previous to receiving the Sacra- ment, so faithfully set before him his sin and the sacrilege of a drunkard celebrating the Communion, that from that time he became a total abstainer, and never drank wine again even when recommended to do so by his physician. Before going to Quainton he had been, though for a short time only, a senior student of Christ Church, and from 1566 to 1571 he held a prebend of Chester, the Rectory of Laindon, the Mastership of Balliol College, Oxford, and, in succession, the Deaneries of Chester, Christ Church, and Salisbury. To this last he was appointed in 1571, and held it with his Deanery of Christ Church till he received the Bishopric of Rochester, to which he was consecrated on April 13, 1576, though some authorities state that he held it " in commendam " till his translation 8 to Salisbury in 1577. Soon after his consecration he became almoner to the queen, and was a commissioner for the Visitation of Oxford University. 4 In both of his sees small, if any, record exists of his discharge of his episcopal functions. His monument, indeed, informs us that he was very careful in his conferring holy orders manus temere nemini im- posuit and also resisted attacks on the possessions of his See. In this last respect, however, his "storied urn " was not altogether truthful, and a lease which he had been compelled by the queen to grant greatly troubled his conscience. 5 J. Foster's " Registry of Oxford." Other authorities say 1549. Briefe View," p. 185. Royal Assent, November 27, 1577; Rymer's " Foedera." Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cxii. 26, p. 543. "Hutton Correspondence," p. 93. JOHN PIERS. 2OI The most conspicuous action of his life was his preaching the sermon on the queen's going in state to St. Paul's, on Sunday, November 24, 1588, to return thanks for the defeat of the Spanish Armada. 1 His text was most felicitous. " Thou didst blow with Thy wind, the sea covered them : they sank as lead in the mighty waters" (Exod. xv. io). 2 He was elected to the Archbishopric of York on February I, 1589. His five years' archi-episcopate was unevent- ful. He died at Bishopthorpe on September 28, 1594, and was buried in York Minster. Archbishop Piers was a sound Churchman. On his death-bed he expressed himself to his chaplain, Dr. King, subsequently Bishop of London, in the following terms in confession of his faith : " I have received much ; written much ; often dis- puted ; preached often ; yet never could I find in the book of God any ground for popery; neither have I known any point of doctrine in the Church of England that is not consonant to the Word of God." Dr. King remarking that the Holy Spirit was the sole source of comfort to the conscience, the dying archbishop agreed. "The Spirit of God," he said, " doth assure my spirit that I am the child of God." 3 Harington, and with truth, sums up his memoir in a line : " He lived and dyed a most reverent prelate." 1 Stow's "Annals" (1615), fol. p. 750 " the 2 Miss Strickland's " Lives of the Queens of England," iv. p. 592. 3 Dr. King's Funeral Sermon, in Strype's " Annals," iv. p. 28. 202 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. JOHN AYLMER. BISHOP OF LONDON, 1577. BISHOP AYLMER was born at Aylmer Hall, Norfolk, in which county his family had long resided, an ancestor having been High Sheriff in the reign of Edward II. As a boy he attracted the notice of the Marquis of Dorset, afterwards Duke of Suffolk, who, at his own expense, sent him to Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1541, but at what college is unknown. In that year he was ordained, and received the Rectory of Stoke Rodney, Somerset- shire, and subsequently a prebend of Wells. In 1 546 his patron made him tutor to his daughter, Lady Jane Grey. This marvellous child, then scarcely nine years of age, was not only singularly beautiful, but possessed a rare intellect and a love of learning rarer still. In Aylmer she found a capable and gentle instructor, who taught her so "gently" and "pleasantly" and "with such fair allurements to learning, that she thought all the time nothing while she was with him." It had been well for the reputation of Aylmer if he had been known to posterity but by this episode in his life, which was in such contrast with his future career, when this " so gentle a schoolmaster," as his pupil termed him, became a ferocious and pitiless persecutor. While at Bradgate, Aylmer rendered great service to the reformed religion, not only by strengthening his 1 Writing to Burghley in 1581 (Lansdowne MSS.), Aylmer mentions himself as being a sexagenarian. The main authority for this memoir, except where other authorities are given, is Strype's "Life of Bishop Aylmer." JOHN AYLMER. 203 pupil in its principles, from which she never swerved and for which ultimately she became a martyr, but also by his laborious and successful preaching of the gospel in the towns and villages of Leicestershire. On her marriage with Lord Guilford Dudley in 1553, Aylmer accompanied her to Court, and was made Archdeacon of Stow. The accession of Mary in the following year sounded as a knell of doom to Protestants like Aylmer. Yet his courage was never more conspicuous nor his zeal for the reformed faith more ardent than when it seemed a failing cause, and he incurred the hatred of the Romanists by his able defence of it in Convocation. He found it necessary to make his escape, but he did so with difficulty. The officers sent to seize him boarded the vessel in which he was, but the captain had hidden him in a large wine-tub in the hold, which had a false bottom, and while Aylmer's pursuers were drinking wine from the top, he, being of very diminu- tive stature, lay safely concealed at the bottom. 1 During his stay abroad he resided chiefly at Strasburg and Zurich, also visiting the Universities of Germany and Italy. At Frankfort he established lectures on theology for the exiles who had been students at Oxford and Cambridge, but the scheme fell through. He also assisted Foxe in his famous Martyrology, in which we have from his pen the remarkable letter written by Lady Jane Grey to Harding, which is a monument of her learning and piety, and also revised the book on its completion. At this time he wrote his " Harborowe " to con- trovert John Knox's " First blaste of the Trumpet against the monstrous Regimen of Women," the women in question being Queen Mary of England and Mary of Loraine, Regent of Scotland. But the principles advocated by Aylmer were soon afterwards applicable to Queen Elizabeth. The book was not 1 Fuller's "Worthies," vol. ii. p. 126. 2O4 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. published till her accession, and then appeared without the name of its author. In its day it had a great repu- tation, and Hallam mentions it as containing an expo- sition of the principles of the English constitution. 1 A passage aimed at the wealthy Romish prelates was afterwards directed against himself when he also became a bishop. " Come off, ye Bishops, Away with your superfluities : yield up your Thousands. Be content with Hundreds." On his gaining the episcopal throne, and being twitted with these radical sentiments, he gave a scriptural reply : " When I was a child, I spake as a child." On his return to England he took part in the Westminster conference with the Romanists, but though thus employed by Government, he was not provided for, and having sold his patrimony in Norfolk to maintain himself in his exile, had no means of support. Accordingly, he thus wrote to his friend and patron, Lord Robert Dudley " Good my L. if the Deanry of Winchester be not alreadie swallowed up : lett me amonge the rest of the small fisshes have a snatche at the baite. If yt be gone I besech yo r good L. cast a hooke for the deanrie of duresm that when M r horn is spedd of a bisshopricke I maie have to serve God, my cutrie and the Ques Ma tie in for now as a misquared stone (I knowe not by what meanes) I serve hir highnes in no pte of hir building, which is no small greife to me. Thus offring up to yo r L. in faithfull S r vice while I live I comitt yow to thalmightie who sends you to sett up that other have pulled down, fro the Minories the 12 of August [1559] yo r L. faithfullie "JOHN This application was unsuccessful, and though his 1 "Constitutional History of England," vol. i. pp. 281, 282. 2 Additional MSS., British Museum, 32091, ff. 172. JOHN AYLMER. 2O5 name was down at this time on Cecil's list of divines fit for high preferment, he received none for three years longer, when he was made Archdeacon of Lincoln, and at the same time a justice of the peace and an Ecclesiastical Commissioner. In all these capacities he strenuously enforced conformity both on Romanist and Puritan, and on leaving the diocese boasted that he did not leave one recusant behind him, which he naively characterized as leaving the diocese " well settled in religion." Yet he drew a wide difference between them. On the Roman Catholics he would have no mercy they must be extirpated ; but the Puritans, he thought, " might by tolleracbn be profitablie employed in Lankishire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, and such other like barbarous countries to draw the people from Papisme and gross ignorance." But to guard his remarks from being supposed to imply any sympathy with them, he added, " This I saye not because I like of them, but because I would have my cure ridd of them, and their labo rs bestowed where p'happs they may doe some good." l He took small part in the general work of the Church outside his own archdeaconry, and though present at the Convocation of 1563, neither spoke nor voted at the celebrated ritual discussion. He evidently preferred the practical part of ecclesiastical warfare, in fining and imprisoning the enemy, to the controversial ; and though Archbishop Parker in 1574 urged him to answer Travers' "De Disciplina," and Burghley in 1581 requested him to confute the " Ten Reasons " of Father Campian, he declined both of those tasks. In 1571 he had been chosen Prolocutor of Convocation, and six years afterwards was made Bishop of London, to which see he was consecrated March 24, 1577. He inaugurated his episcopate by two quarrels 1 Lansdowne MSS., 25 (30). 2O6 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. with his predecessor, one about dilapidations, and the other, first in point of time, about the moiety of the revenues of the see to which they were respectively entitled. Neither prelate showed to advantage, but Aylmer certainly exhibited an ungrateful spirit, since Sandys had done his best to gain him the bishopric. 1 Aylmer's episcopal rule has now to be considered. Towards his clergy he acted as a "lord over the heritage." His Visitation questions were offensively minute and searching, extending even to their domestic affairs. At the time when Elizabeth was matrimonially negotiating with the Duke of Anjou, and was very irate with the comments on the scheme, Aylmer summoned his clergy to London House one Sunday morning, and ordered them not only to refrain from preaching about it, but also from making it the subject of their private conversation. Such clergy as scrupled at an exact conformity felt the full weight of his hand, and on one occasion he suspended thirty-eight beneficed ministers on that account. 2 It mattered nothing how blameless and irreproachable their lives were, nor how prized their ministry by their respective flocks, nor how great and blessed had been their ministerial labours they must conform or go. The fact of his exceptional severity to those whom he regarded as nonconformists is indisputable. Indeed, we have it under his own hand, in a letter to be pre- sently quoted, that none of his predecessors did either " deprive, ymprison or banish so much as he had done." Two or three cases of ministers, whom he thus harshly, if not illegally, suspended, may here be briefly mentioned. George GifTard, minister at Maldon, Essex, "a great and diligent preacher, and much esteemed by 1 Strype's " Annals," II. ii. p. 50. 2 Their names and benefices are given in Neal's " History of the Puritans," i. p. 240. JOHN AYLMER. 2O/ many of good rank in the town, and (who) had brought that place to more sobriety and knowledge of true religion," was, in 1584, suspended for " refusing to subscribe the Articles." These, however, were not the "Thirty-nine," but those which Archbishop Whitgift had, to the indignation of the Puritans, recently imposed upon the clergy. Among them was one that required every clergyman to declare his belief in the scripturalness of the Liturgy, and this Giffard could not conscientiously do. There were other charges, such as his teaching disobedience to magistrates, but they only rested on hearsay, and when examined in the Court of High Commission were dismissed. Aylmer restored him, but soon afterwards, on the strength of a fresh complaint, once more suspended him. Yet in essentials of doctrine Giffard was far from being a Puritan, and wrote ably against the " separatists," exposing their reasons for withdrawing from the public communion of the Church. Henry Smith, Lecturer at St. Clement Danes, the greatest preacher of his age, was suspended by Aylmer on the ground that " he had spoken in his sermon some words derogatory to the Book of Common Prayer, neither had subscribed the Articles, wherein was contained the approbation of the said book." The first of these charges was entirely false. The truth of the other was admitted, but the articles in question were the primate's, and while Smith gave his "full consent" to the Thirty-nine Articles, he refused to make " any other subscription than the laws positive of this realm do require." Such, at least, was his answer to Burghley : it must have been judged satisfactory ; at any rate, Aylmer restored him. Like Giffard, he was an opponent of those who separated themselves from the Church of England, and exposed by his arguments their false reasons and pretences. Dyke, preacher at St. Alban's, a man recommended 208 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. by Burghley, and highly esteemed by his congrega- tion for his life and doctrine, was suspended by Aylmer, first for remaining in deacon's orders, which he deemed a "disallowing of the ministry of the Church of England ; " and secondly, because he had been charged with immorality. The latter accusation was a gross slander, nor could the bishop have be- lieved it : if he had, as Burghley told him, he should have given him a heavier punishment than suspension. It does not appear that Bishop Aylmer paid any regard to Burghley 's request for Dyke's restoration, and what made the case worse was that the curate at St. Alban's was " a very insufficient, aged, doting man." If any apology can be made for Bishop Aylmer's severe treatment of such as he regarded as non- conformists, it must be sought for in the prevalence of Puritanical practices and sympathies in the Church, and in the strength of his own conviction, undoubtedly sincere, that they tended to the over- throw of religion itself, and called for the most drastic measures to extirpate so fatal a malady. He had assisted in drawing up Whitgift's Articles, and the one which required a declaration of belief in the entire scripturalness of the Liturgy was well adapted to sift nonconforming ministers. Towards Romish recusants he was still more severe. We learn from himself that on occasion he ad- vised the application of torture to persons who refused to answer interrogatories. For a Romish priest named Meredith, having been apprehended by the bishop's officers, and a hallowed candle and other " trinkettes " found in his pocket, was brought before Aylmer, and on his refusal to answer questions that might criminate others, the bishop wrote to Cecil, ad- vising that the poor priest should be "shewn the rack." 1 The case of Carter exposed the bishop to the popular odium. He was a printer of Roman books, 1 Strype's "Life of Aylmer," p. 24. JOHN AYLMER. 2OO, and having printed a pamphlet in which Mary Queen of Scots was called the heir apparent, which the episcopal myrmidons had unearthed on searching his house, Aylmer sent him to prison, where, after four years' confinement, he was tried at the Old Bailey for treason, and hung, drawn and quartered. For this the people branded Aylmer as a " man of blood." In a letter he wrote to propitiate the queen, whom he had deeply offended by cloaking his practices under her authority, he has drawn his own character in colours of imperishable infamy. Having expa- tiated on his suppression of conventicles, his vigorous enforcement of conformity, and effectual taming of the ministers and preachers in London, he thus enumerates his severities as though they were the most meritorious services " To speak of punishment for disordres and corrupt opinions, was it ever hard of that any of my prede- cessors did either deprive, ymprison, or banishe so much as I have done ? Did ever any man stande so muche w'h them in disputatione, or susteyne by them and for them so greate malice, so many slaunders as I have done ? These be deedes with your Ma ties favor and no woordes. Ys there any man in Englande whome they take to be so professed an enemye unto them as they holde me to bee ? Whome ever have I preferred of that factione, either by my self or by my frendes on that side ? I am called a Papist, a Tor- menter of Godes children, a Bonner and Butcher, a clawback, a man-pleaser, and I am reported to your Majesty to be a favourer of them, a milksoppe, and to feare such as be their frendes above the reverence and fear that I owe unto you. No, no, most gratious Soverayne, I have learned to have but one beynge, one faithe and one lawe : and that only will I feare." 1 1 Sir Christopher Hatton's "Letter Book:" Additional MSS., British Museum, 15891, f. 76. 210 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. Though Bishop Aylmer thus humbly addressed the queen, he could be arrogant and insolent to his inferiors, and once gave a severe scolding to the lord mayor, who had offended him by reprimanding the city clergy for preaching about the queen's marriage with the Duke of Anjou. He concluded thus : " Yf you take this in good parte, as comynge from him that hath charge over you, I am gladd of it ; Yf not, I must then tell you your dewtie owte of my Chayer, w c h is the Pulpitt at Paules Crosse, wheare you must sitt, not as a Judge to controlle, but as a Scholler to learne ; and I, nott as John Elmer to be taunted, but as John London to teache you and all that Cittie. And, if you use not your self as a humble scholler, then to discipline you as your chief Pastor and prelate. And so I bid your L. hartely fare well. I st March 1581 [-2] Your L, lovinge frende and Bishope "JHON LONDON." i In 1583 Aylmer was engaged in carrying out the instructions of the Privy Council for the suppression of printing-presses in London and its vicinity. As an Ecclesiastical Commissioner, and also as the Ordinary, he issued his warrant to the Wardens of the Stationers' Company to inquire as to the number of private printing-presses in and about the City of London, and restrain them till further orders, such as were allowed being bound over to good usage. The wardens informed him that the University of Cam- bridge were about to establish a printing-house there, and pointed out the dangerous consequence of such a proceeding. Their printer had also set up a press in London. Aylmer acted with his usual promptitude by incar- cerating the printer and staying the University press, though it had received the sanction of the Privy 1 Sir Christopher Hatton's "Letter Book:" Additional MSS., British Museum, 15891, f. 76. JOHN AYLMER. 211 Council. For this he has been severely censured, but in his letter to Burghley he declared that he had only done so temporarily from a " cautious assurance that the privilege of the University" should be "well used both for lawful matter and good workmanship." 1 The apology for his high-handed conduct was, it must be admitted, rather a lame one. Fifty-three printing-presses were at the same time suppressed in London. The justification for this lay in the scandalous publications which emanated from them, and which, early in the reign of Elizabeth, had so excited the horror of an Italian gentleman resident in London, that, in a letter to the Mantuan Ambassador at Brussels, he expressed his wonder that their authors did not " perish by the act of God." 2 As a pastor Aylmer is not undeserving of praise, even though Marprelate nicknamed him "Dumb John of London," from the infrequency of his sermons. However that may have been, he had very correct notions as to what sermons should be, as the following passage well shows : " Those that were preachers must be no milksops, no white-livered gentlemen that, for the frowning and cloudy countenance of every man in authority, will leave his tackle and cry peccavL They should not be afraid to rebuke the proudest, no, not kings and queens, so far forth as the two tables reach. That they stoop not to every man's beck, nor study to please men more than God. If heresies arise, they must have their tools ready to meet with the adversary, and to overthrow him, which he could never have unless he had travailed in many sciences, heard and read much. For it is not enough for a man to tell a fair tale in the pulpit, and, when he comes down, is not able to defend it. If preachers and spiritual men be such where be we, when we 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. clxi. i. Date, 1583. - Calendar State Papers, Venetian, vol. vii. p. 53. March 21, 1558-9. 212 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. come to hand-gripes ? They must not only flourish, but they must know their quarter-strokes, and the way how to defend their head ; their Head CHRIST, I say, and His Cross." 1 What Aylmer taught others to do he did himself, and was not "afraid to rebuke the proudest" when he felt it to be his duty. Thus he greatly displeased the queen by a sermon he preached before her, in which he vehemently inveighed against excess in female apparel. The royal wardrobe was most extensive, containing somewhere about six hundred gowns, and the preacher's words went home to the conscience of the queen, or that which did duty for it in the royal breast, and she told her ladies after- wards, that " if the bishop held more discourse on such matters she would fit him for Heaven ; but he should go there without a staff and leave his mantle behind him." 2 As a preacher he was eminently scriptural. " The Bible," he used to declare, " is a Paradise wherein are to be found all the best herbs and fruits that be." 3 Nor did he disdain anecdotes in his sermons, and was by no means particular in his quotations of them, of which one earned for him from Marprelate the epithet of " a blasphemous beast." He was unwilling to let the pulpit die of dignity. To preach the truth fully was his first and great aim, but to preach it so as to be understood was his second. On this account he would not only, as has already been mentioned, tell anecdotes in his sermons, but also adopt strange devices to secure attention. Once when preaching at St. Paul's Cross, and perceiving the congregation to be drowsy, he paused, and pulling out of his pocket a Hebrew Bible, 1 Strype's "Life of Aylmer," p. 192. 2 " Nugse Antiquae," i. 170, 217, quoted in Hallam's " Constitutional History," vol. i. p. 225 note. Strype's " Life of Aylmer," p. 181. JOHN AYLMER. 213 commenced reading it aloud. The people, roused by the strange words, listened with rapt attention, every eye being fixed upon the preacher. Aylmer, having thus gained a hearing, sternly reproved them for neglecting the message of salvation delivered to them in their own language, while they gave earnest heed to words which to them were unintelligible. 1 In his care to provide fit persons for the ministry, Bishop Aylmer was highly commendable. He made three requirements from all candidates for holy orders : they must be godly men, sound in the faith, and learned. He himself, and in public, examined them in Divinity and Latin, and seldom ordained any except University graduates. Once it is true he ordained his own porter at Fulham, and appointed him to the Vicarage of Paddington. His enemies declared it was a simo- niacal way of pensioning an old servant, who, being blind, was of no further use. The fact, however, was that he was not blind for years after his ordination. He was a very pious man, very conversant in the Scriptures, and gave great satisfaction to his parishioners. His correspondence shows him to have been in- fluenced by a sincere desire that the highest posts in the Church should be filled by men best fitted for them, and for that with him piety and learning were the first considerations, sometimes outweighing even Puritanism, as when he urged the Privy Council to give the Bishopric of Gloucester to Laurence Humphrey. 2 It was this Humphrey whose Puritanism had caused Bishop Jewel to refuse him institution to a benefice, and elicited from the queen a sarcasm. " Master Doctor," she said, " that loose gown becomes you mighty well ; I wonder your notions should be so narrow." 1 "Briefe View," p. 20. 2 Cotton MSS., Vespasian, c. xiv. 530. Date, February I, 1579-80. See also "Life of Bishop J. Bullingham," p. 278. 214 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. Bishop Aylmer's religious zeal did not, however, counterbalance in the opinion of men what they deemed his covetousness, which served as a target for the wit of Bacon, and elicited the censure of Burghley and the gross, though probably baseless, scurrilities of Marprelate. Within two years from his consecration he was accused to the Privy Council of cutting down timber on the episcopal manors and pocketing the proceeds, and the charges were thought so serious that he was threatened with deprivation unless he altered his conduct. 1 He was accused of breaking the Sabbath by playing at bowls on Sunday afternoon, and occa- sionally getting in his hay to prevent it being spoilt As to the former charge he said that he never played till divine service was over, and that Christ had said that "the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath." As to the hay question, he probably was guided by the twentieth of Queen Elizabeth's Injunctions, which ordained that they might so " labour upon the holy and festival days after their common-prayer in the time of harvest." A greater bishop than Aylmer thought so too, for Bishop Jeremy Taylor, in his " Ductor Dubitantium," quoted this very injunction to show that under certain circumstances agricultural operations may be per- formed on the Sunday. 2 His profane expressions of "By my faith" and " By my troth," which deeply offended the Puritan mind, he justified as being phrases which only meant Amen. Bishop Aylmer died on June 3, 1594. He was married, and left a family. 1 Lansdowne MSS., xxviii. 72, contains Aylmer's angry reply. Dated May 26, 1579. 2 Bishop Taylor's " Works," ed. by Rev. C. P. Eden, vol. ix., pp. 465, 466, and note. JOHN WHITGIFT. 21$ JOHN WHITGIFT. 1530-1604. BISHOP OF WORCESTER, 1577 ; ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, 1583. JOHN WHITGIFT, Archbishop of Canterbury, was born at Great Grimsby, Lincolnshire, and was the eldest son of Henry Whitgift, a merchant of that place. His early education was entrusted to his uncle, Robert Whitgift, Abbot of Wellow, Notting- hamshire, of whom it has been recorded that though a Roman Catholic, he used to say, that much as he had looked for Romanism in the Bible, he could never find it. That this good old man's teaching left a Protestant bias on his nephew's mind can scarcely be questioned. On leaving the monastery of Wellow, young Whit- gift was sent to St. Antholin's, a famous school in London at that time, and where Sir Thomas More and Archbishop Heath had formerly been educated. He boarded with his aunt, the wife of one Shaller, a verger of St. Paul's, an ardent Roman Catholic, who insisted on her nephew attending early Mass at the cathedral. The boy refused, and in consequence suffered much persecution, but all her threats and violence were powerless to change his resolution. Unable at last to bear her continued ill-usage, he left her and went home, when his father, discovering the excellent pro- gress he had made in his studies, determined to send him to the University. Accordingly, in 1549, he was entered at Queens' College, Cambridge, but in the following year migrated to Pembroke Hall. Ridley was at that time Master of Pembroke, and John Bradford was Whitgift's tutor, and their influence must have contributed not a 216 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. little to strengthen his Protestantism. In 1554 he graduated as Bachelor of Arts, and was elected a fellow of Peterhouse in 1555. Though outwardly conforming to Romanism, his sympathy with the doctrines of the Reformation was so well known, that at the Visitation of the University by Cardinal Pole's commissioners, he was protected by the in- fluence of Dr. Perne, the master of his college. At the accession of Elizabeth he gave a cordial adhesion to Protestantism, which he evidenced by selecting as the subject for his first thesis the dogma that " the Pope was Antichrist." About 1560 he was ordained, and preached his first sermon in the Univer- sity pulpit, and with great applause. It was a clear declaration of evangelical principles, his text being " I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." Pre- ferment soon followed. Cox, Bishop of Ely, made him his chaplain, and collated him to the valuable Rectory of Teversham, Cambridgeshire (1560). In 1563 he was appointed Margaret Professor of Divinity, and in the dispute about habits, which two years afterwards agitated the University, Whitgift for the first and last time in his life sided with the Puritans. For he joined in the petition sent by the University to their Chancellor, Cecil, requesting his influence to stay the royal mandate which had en- joined the compulsory use of the surplice and cope. His conduct, however, greatly displeased the queen, and he found it necessary to make an apology for thus opposing her will. In 1566 he became University preacher, and had the salary of his professorship increased from twenty marks to twenty pounds a solid proof of the regard in which he was held by the University for his admir- able discharge of the duties of his office. In 1567 he was appointed Master of Pembroke Hall, and in less than two months afterwards Master of Trinity College, and also in the same year Regius Professor JOHN WHITGIFT. 2 1/ of Divinity and chaplain to the queen. This last preferment, and probably some of the others, must be ascribed to the satisfaction he had given Elizabeth by a sermon he had lately preached before her. In 1568 his former patron, Bishop Cox, conferred on him a Canonry of Ely. His appointment to Trinity was objected to on the strange ground that he was a nonconformist at heart, and Whitgift had to write to Cecil vindicating him- self from the charge. " He had," he declared, " always persuaded men to conform, and was grieved that any should cease from preaching the use of those things that were, in their own nature, indifferent." l That the charge was wholly untrue, especially in substantiate, he presently showed by his controversy with the celebrated Thomas Cartwright, who had meanwhile succeeded to the Margaret Professorship, and who, in his lectures on the first two chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, had made a sweeping attack on the hierarchy of the Church of England, and also on its Liturgy. The constitution of the Anglican episcopate was, he declared, an entire departure from apostolic and primitive practice, and to have more than one order of ministers was unscriptural and therefore evil. The source of ordination was the choice of the people, and every minister must be equal and supreme in his own parish. Also the form of conveyance of the Holy Ghost, as used in the Prayer-book, was to be discarded as being " both ridiculous and wicked." 2 That a man of Whitgift's temper of mind should resent such an attack upon the Church, made too by a Professor of Divinity, was not only to be expected but became his situation. Even Grindal, the most gentle and tolerant of all the bishops, was so dis- pleased with the disingenuousness of Cartwright's 1 Strype's " Whitgift," iii. pp. 9, 10 ; " Annals." 2 Brook's "Memoir of T. Cartwright." 2l8 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. conduct and the mischievousness of his teaching, that he wrote to the Government urging them to silence him. 1 Whitgift attacked him from the University pulpit, where he contravened his propositions with great ability ; nor did he stop there, for on June 29, 1570, he, together with the vice-chancellor and other heads of houses, refused him his degree of Doctor of Divinity, and also prohibited his lectures. On December 15 in that year, Whitgift, who had just become vice-chancellor, deprived Cartwright of his professorship ; and in the following September, of his fellowship, on the ground that not being in orders he was incapable of holding it. At this time he took a chief part in the compilation of statutes for the University, which as enforcing a stricter conformity were very odious to the Puritans. Cartwright was one of the first to smart from them, for though he had so great a following that he would probably have been elected vice-chancellor, the new statutes had limited the choice to one out of two nominated by the heads of colleges. He was soon afterwards expelled from Cambridge, and retired to Geneva. Not long after his leaving England there appeared a remarkable pamphlet, entitled " An Admonition to the Parliament for the Reformation of Church Disci- pline." It was published in 1571, and being on the lines of Cartwright's lectures, its authorship was com- monly, but erroneously, ascribed to him. The real writers, however, were two Puritan ministers, named Field and Wilcox, who in October, 1572, were sent to gaol for their performance, which was a bitter attack on the abuses of the Church, among which the bishops figured as the chief. Cartwright, returning, became the champion of their cause, visited them in prison, and brought out his famous treatise, " The Second Admonition to the Parliament." It was 1 Printed in " Grindal's Remains" (Parker Society), p. 323: Arch- bishop Grindal to Sir W. Cecil, June 24, 1570. JOHN WHITGIFT. 2 19 composed in a popular and plain style, and was read by tens of thousands. The bishops, who had taken little or no notice of the former " Admonition," felt that the matter was becoming too serious to be over- looked ; and Whitgift, who in the mean time had become Dean of Lincoln x (1571), and also Prolocutor of Convocation (1572), was chosen to answer it. Archbishop Parker, it has been said, engaged his services for the work, and gave him assistance in it, as did other bishops, notably Thomas Cooper, Bishop of Lincoln, and afterwards of Winchester. The result was Whitgift' s famous work called " An Answere to a certen Libel intituled an Admonition to the Parliament." 2 To this Cartwright at once wrote his " Replye," which in its turn drew from Whitgift " The Defense of the Answere," published in 1574, and with which, so far as he was concerned, the controversy ended. Before it reached this stage, however, the queen had interfered, and in June, 1573, issued a proclamation, 3 ordering " the Admoni- tion and all other books made for the defence of it, or agreeable therewith," to be brought to the Bishop of London, or to one of the Privy Council, within twenty days, under severe pains and penalties in case of disobedience. Not only were printers, publishers, and booksellers to give up the books thus prohibited, but the buyers also ; yet the royal edict fell quite flat, for not one copy was surrendered to the bishop within the time specified, and the private printing-presses at Wandsworth and elsewhere continued to issue Cartwright's " Replye." Though the merits of this controversy need not here be discussed, two points in it may be referred to : one, and that the chief, being the authority of 1 lie also received a prebend in the same cathedral in 1572, and the archbishop granted him a faculty to hold them together. 2 410. H. Bynnerman : 1572. 3 Strype's "Life of Parker," vol. ii. p. 256. 22O LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. Scripture in ecclesiastical matters ; the other, the power of the Sovereign to authorise the use of things indifferent. As to the former, both agreed as to the supremacy of Scripture in matters of faith ; but Cart- wright went further, and extended it to Church government and ritual, and taught that omission was prohibition, and that whatever could not be found in the Scriptures as having been ordained by Christ or His Apostles was anti-Christian. This Whitgift declared to be a false and rotten principle, and main- tained that ecclesiastical government must be taken from the history of the primitive Church, the decision of general councils, and the writings of the Fathers. Besides this, he held that when the Church was established, the Sovereign could compel con- formity in things indifferent, a dogma which the other contravened. Whitgift having said his say 1 in the matter, and made, as was thought by all but the Puritans, a crushing answer, carried on his attack in other quarters. On March 26, 1574, he preached before the queen at Greenwich his famous 2 sermon against the Puritans, which must have confirmed her in her previously expressed determination to "root them out." Elizabeth must also have felt, as she listened to him, that the little black-complexioned, bitter- phrased divine then in her pulpit, was the very man to give effect to this policy of extermination. In 1575 the primate recommended him 3 for the vacant Bishopric of Norwich, but though the queen had asked his "judgment" in the matter, she did not go by it, and Whitgift had to wait two years longer for the mitre. On March 24, 1577, exactly three years after his delivery of his discourse against the Puritans, 1 Cartwright continued it, publishing his "Second Replie" in 1575. 2 " A Godlie Sermon," etc. 8vo. London : 1574. Subsequently reprinted. 3 "Parker Correspondence," p. 476. March 17, 1574-5. JOHN WHITGIFT. 221 he was nominated to the Bishopric of Worcester, and consecrated on April 21 following. Whitgift left Cambridge in the full odour of academic renown, preaching his farewell sermon to an immense and enthusiastic audience, and the next day a procession of the heads of houses and others attended him out of the town on his way to his distant diocese. To such homage he was undoubtedly entitled, for his career had been distinguished, honour- able, and useful. As master of a great college, he had been singularly eminent. To the students he had been both tutor and parent, and one of them, Babington, afterwards Bishop of Worcester, who preached his funeral sermon, bore witness in that discourse to the debt of gratitude and affection which he owed his old tutor. To the college itself he rendered an important service ; for when it was contemplated to convert it into an exclusive college for boys from Westminster School, he offered such strenuous opposition that the scheme was abandoned. Even his great detractor, Lord Macaulay, 1 is compelled to admit the meritoriousness of W T hitgift in this matter, though he adds the damaging statement that it was the only good act of his long public life. Whitgift's episcopate at Worcester, though not eventful, was creditable to him as a prelate and a man. He was a constant preacher in his diocese, and every Sunday occupied the pulpit either of his own cathedral or of some parish church. Unlike his litigious predecessor, Sandys, he lived at great peace with his neighbours, and even established harmony between some of them who were at discord. Thus, on one occasion, when the retainers of Sir John Russell and Sir Henry Berkeley, who were at that time enemies, had assembled in arms to the number of five hundred, he had them brought to his palace 1 "Essay on Francis Bacon." 222 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. and compelled them to surrender their weapons, and finally prevailed on the two enemies to become friends. The queen marked her sense of his merits by giving him the patronage of the prebends of the cathedral, which belonged to the Crown, and the nomination of the justices for the counties of his diocese, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. Besides this, she made him vice-president of the marches of Wales in the place of Sir Henry Sidney, then Lord Deputy of Ireland. This union of temporal and ecclesiastical offices had received Cartwright's un- measured invective in the recent controversy. That bishops should be prelates of the garter, high com- missioners, or even magistrates, was, he declared, plainly forbidden by the reply of Christ to the young man who wished to go home to bury his father " Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God." No wonder that with this sample of his scriptural exposition, Whit- gift expressed his contempt 1 of Cartwright as a commentator on the Bible. Yet, though on principle he had no objection to a divine holding a secular office, he was in his own person averse to the practice, and when archbishop he refused the Great Seal in 1587, and the chancellorship of the University of Oxford in the following year, and we are told that he seldom attended the meetings of the Privy Council unless matters affecting the Church had to be discussed. Though Elizabeth so signally showed her approba- tion of him, he did not hesitate to oppose her when he felt it to be his duty. Thus we find him delivering an address to her Majesty on the scandalous spoliation of the lands of the Church by her courtiers, notably the Earl of Leicester. It is far too long for full quotation, but it was a bold and faithful homily on 1 Strype's " Life of Parker," ii. p. 254. JOHN WHITGIFT. 223 the sin of sacrilege and the obligation of Elizabeth to protect the Church by virtue of her coronation oath. In it he pointed out to her the mischief of im- poverishing the Church and rendering its ministers contemptible by reason of their poverty, and reminded her that though her authority was certainly great, she was responsible to God for its right exercise. On July 6, 1583, the death of Grindal vacated the Archbishopric of Canterbury, to which the queen nominated 1 Whitgift on the I4th of the following August. It had been her wish to appoint him to the primacy in the lifetime of the late archbishop, but he rejected the offer with the utmost decision though Grindal pressed him to accept it, and his firmness and bold intercession with her Majesty prevented her from depriving his predecessor. 2 Shortly before his election, writing to his old friend Archbishop Hutton he thus expressed his sense of the responsibility he had incurred by accepting so exalted a post : " The burden layed uppon me ys verie heavie and great ; yet, bycause yt ys God's owne doeing who hath wroght yt in her Majestie's hart, my trust ys that He wyll furnish me with gyfts and graces necessarie, that I may without faignting performe that whereunto He hath so called me." 3 The work to which he was thus called was indeed heavy. For Elizabeth was now quite decided as to her Church policy, which was to " root up " the Puritans and crush the recusants, and it devolved on the new archbishop to carry it out. During the quarter of a century that had elapsed since the 1 Elected, August 23 ; confirmed, September 23 ; rest, temp., October 7 ; enthroned, October 23. - G. Paule's "Life of Archbishop Whitgift." Reprinted in C. Wordsworth's " Ecclesiastical Biography," vol. iii. p. 580. 3 " Hutton Correspondence," p. 72. Date of letter, September 17, 1583- 224 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. queen's accession, the enemies of the Anglican Church had undergone a great change. The non- conformists no longer, as at first, contended against vestments and ceremonies merely, but struck their blows at the very vitals of the ecclesiastical constitu- tion. Had they succeeded in their attempts, nothing scarcely would have been left to the Church of England but its name. Their attitude was aggressive, for now, instead of being satisfied with complete toleration of their religious opinions, they sought to impose them on the nation by Parliamentary enactment. Nor should this ambition excite surprise, because with the increase of strength there naturally comes the desire to exercise it. When Whitgift became archbishop the Puritans had grown to be a powerful faction in the State as well as in the Church, and many of Elizabeth's most influential ministers, such as Leicester, Walsingham, and Knollys, were either avowedly or secretly on their side, while in the House of Commons they had a great and, at one time, a dominant party. They had, moreover, gained to a very considerable degree the sympathy and the enthusiasm of those who thought seriously about religious things, and a great modern historian x has recorded his opinion that in England " every earnest man who was not a Puritan was a Catholic." Romanism, too, had changed its aspect, and from being comparatively inert had become ultramontane and propagandist. The old priests who had used the Liturgy in the reign of Edward and the Missal in that of Mary, but had been deprived by Elizabeth, and who for the most part were an easy-going, quiet set of men, had been succeeded by an order of clergy new to the nation. These were the seminary priests " popish reconcilers," as they were sometimes called who had been educated at the foreign colleges 1 Froude's " History of England." JOHN WHITGIFT. 225 founded by Philip of Spain for the children of Ro- manists, whom the intolerance of Elizabeth would not allow to be brought up in their native land in accordance with their own religion. From childhood these young exiles had been taught an intense hatred of the queen and of Pro- testantism, and, though English by birth, they had little, if any, love for their native country. They crossed the Channel as agents of the pope and of Philip of Spain, their mission being to alienate the subjects of Elizabeth from their loyalty and their religion, and travelled through the length and breadth of the kingdom propagating their doctrines doctrines which aimed at the dethronement and death of the queen and the re-kindling of the fires at Smithfield for the "heretics." These seminarists were men of a very different stamp from their clerical predecessors, the old ' Mass-priests," with whose intellectual and moral deficiencies the nation was so contemptuously familiar, and by their learning, ability, zeal, and courage, as well as by their intense religious convic- tion, stirred up the smouldering embers of Romanism into a dangerous enthusiasm. Their influence on the laity of their Church was very considerable, and injurious to the hopes that had been cherished of their gradual absorption into Protestantism. For now they ceased to attend their parish church, which hitherto they had done concurrently with observing the rites of their own religion in private. At the time of Whitgift's appointment to the primacy Romanism was rife ; the gaols of London were filled with priests and Jesuits, who, to the indignation of Bishop Aylmer, boldly said Mass in prison, and made daily conversions among the young men. 1 If in his dealings with Puritans and Romanists Whitgift acted with what seems to us extreme severity, 1 Strype's " Life of Bishop Aylmer," p. 69. Q 226 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. his apology, if not his justification, is to be found in the critical nature of the age in which he lived. He began by visiting his province, and, as a basis of inquiry and action, drew up a series of articles, in which he was assisted by eight of his suffragans, 1 and, having been first submitted to the queen, they were published on October 29, 1583, just six days after his enthronement. They directed a strict execution of the laws against recusants and nonconformists. Conventicles were to be " utterly extinguished." No one was to be permitted to preach except he adminis- tered the Communion once a quarter and according to the Prayer-book, and even the interpretation of Scripture was confined to the clergy ; and a declara- tion of belief in the royal supremacy, the Thirty-nine Articles, and the scripturalness of the Liturgy, were to be required from every minister before he could exercise any spiritual function. The Bishops' Bible was to be the only one used in divine service, and the surplice, cope, and tippet were to be worn as prescribed. The rest of the articles related to ordi- nations, and to rules for penances and marriage. 2 The Puritans were indignant at the articles, which they branded as " a new plot," and declared them to be not only tyrannical, but illegal. The archbishop, however, satisfied with the queen's sanction and his own canonical authority, was quite unmoved by their denunciation, and issued them to his suffragans with an accompanying letter, in which he gave special directions for executing the laws against all popish recusants. 3 Thus armed, he proceeded to action, and in Kent alone suspended nineteen ministers who refused to subscribe. One of these was the minister of Eastwell, whose 1 Aylmer, Cooper, Freake, Middleton, Piers, Scambler, Watson, and Young. 2 These articles are printed in Strype's "Whitgift," iii. p. 81, and also in Cardwell's " Documentary Annals." 3 A copy is in State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. c. 31. JOHN WHITGIFT. ' 22? vagaries in performing divine service may be taken as a sample of the neglect of law and order that was by no means exceptional. In reading the prayers he left out the Exhortation, the Absolution, the Venite, the Te Deum, the three Collects, and the Litany ; sometimes also beginning with the Lord's Prayer and the Psalms. At the celebration of the Communion he omitted all between the General ' Confession and the Administration, not even reading the Prayer for the Consecration of the Elements. In delivering the bread he substituted for the words of the Prayer-book others which he thought more suit- able. As for the cup, he first partook of it himself, and then handed it to the clerk, who, having drunk the wine, passed it on to the nearest communicant, from whom the rest received it, the one from the other. When all was done a psalm was sung by the people. In the solemnisation of marriages he was still more defiant of law and rubric, for, as the arch- bishop quaintly noted, " he useth such order as seemeth best to himself, omitting the order of the Book." The disuse of the surplice, especially at the Lord's Supper, of baptism of sick children, of the ring at marriages, of the churching of women, of questions to god-parents, was frequent, and at funerals the corpse was buried without reference to the " sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life." * To a man of Whitgift's orderly mind and strict ecclesiastical notions such laxity appeared unprin- cipled licence, requiring prompt suppression. His own authority as archbishop 2 was insufficient for the work, and, as he declared in a letter he wrote to Burghley at this time, " the whole ecclesiastical law was a carcase without a soul." 3 That soul, he added, 1 Strype's " Whitgift," vol. i. pp. 278, 279. 2 The old canonical authority of the Archbishops of Canterbury was abolished by Statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 20, and I Eliz. c. 3. 3 Strype's " Whitgift." 228 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. was " a Commission." Accordingly he demanded one, and it was issued in the month of December, 1 583, under the Great Seal. Thus equipped, he began in earnest with twenty-four fresh articles, which he published in the following May. 1 They were of the nature of interrogatories, ex officio mero 9 to be administered by the commissioners to such of the clergy as were suspected even of noncon- formity or of anything deemed inconsistent with their pastoral office. These articles and their manner of application aroused the anger of the Puritans, and also the displeasure of many sound Churchmen, such as Burghley, who, though he had consented to granting the commission, never anticipated that it would have been thus conducted, and he expressed himself accordingly in a letter to the archbishop. " I am come," he wrote, " to the sight of an instru- ment of twenty-four articles of great length and curiosity, formed in a Romish style, to examine al maner of Ministers in this time without distinction of persons which I have read, and find so curiously penned, so ful of branches and circumstances as I think the Inquisitors of Spain use not so many ques- tions to comprehend and to trap their preyes. I know your Canonists can defend these with al their perticels, but surely under your Grace's correction, this judicial and canonical sifting of poor Ministers is not to edify or reform, and in charity, I think they ought not to answer to al these nice points, except they were very notorious offenders in Papistry or heresy." After clearing himself of any undue sympathy with non- conformists, he thus continues : " I conclude, that according to my simple judgment, this kind of pro- ceeding is too much savouring of the Romish inquisi- tion and is rather a device to seek for offenders than to reform any." 2 1 Strype's " Whitgift," vol. iii. pp. 81-87. 2 Ibid., pp. 105, 106. Date, July I, 1584. JOHN WHITGIFT. 229 Whitgift replied in defence of his interrogatories, but his arguments on the merits of the case were not of much weight, since all he could say for them was that they were used in other courts, such as the Star Chamber. So far, however, as Burghley was con- cerned, his answer was complete an argumentum ad hominem not to be met ; for the Articles which that statesman now complained of had been submitted to him before being issued, and had received his approval. 1 At this the Lord Treasurer lost his temper, and penned some words about the archbishop's wilfulness, to which his Grace replied that the other mistook constancy for wilfulness, and thus expounded his Church policy in a fashion, the times in which he lived being con- sidered, not unworthy of respect. " I have taken upon me the defence of the religion and rites of this Church ; the execution of the laws concerning the same ; the appeasing of the sects and schisms therein ; the reducing the Ministers thereof to Uniformity and due obedience. Herein I intend to be constant : which also my place, my person, my duty, the laws, her Majesty and the goodness of the cause requireth of me." It is an old saying and a true one, that persons who live in glass houses should not throw stones ; and Whitgift, it must be confessed, was in this position, and it might have been as well, all things considered, that he should have begun by dealing with those of the clergy, whose name, indeed, was Legion, who, either by their ignorance or their conduct, were a disgrace to the Church, rather than with those who were both able and pious, though on some points indisposed to conform. Such, at least, was the opinion of the Privy Council, who, September 20, 1584, wrote a letter to the arch- bishop and the Bishop of London, in which they 1 The oath ex officio mero^ then and afterwards so bitterly com- plained of, was finally swept away by statute in the reign of Charles II. 230 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. sarcastically remarked that, though they had heard of their zeal in making good ministers conform, they had not learnt that they had made any attempts to reform bad ones, of whom there were many, especially in Essex. To this Whitgift at once replied, but his answer was evasive, if not defiant. The Bishop of London, he said, was absent, but when he had an opportunity he would confer with him upon the subject. As for the Puritans, they were a conceited set of people, and entitled to little consideration. Though this was the archbishop's opinion, it was not that of the nation, and on the 23rd of the follow- ing November, three petitions in favour of noncon- forming ministers were laid before the House of Commons. These were reduced to one comprising sixteen articles, which almost exactly corresponded to the thirteen articles which had been submitted to Parliament in 1580, and to which Whitgift, for himself and the rest of the bishops, had drawn up a reply. 1 They prayed that all ignorant ministers should be suspended until they had given satisfactory proof of their fitness for the sacred office ; that every bishop at the time of ordination should be assisted in the laying-on of hands by six other ministers at least ; that none should hereafter be ordained without cure of souls, unless a fellow or scholar of the University and a graduate ; that before induction to a benefice, whether by collation or otherwise, or before appoint- ment to a curacy, due notice must be given, so that objections might be heard ; and that no oath, besides the one prescribed by the statutes, be demanded in such a case, except the one against simony ; that all ministers who of late had been punished for omitting small portions of the Liturgy or some ceremony prescribed in the Prayer-book should be restored ; and, further, that "some good and charitable means" should be "devised" that such ministers who used 1 Strype's " Life of Whitgift," vol. hi. pp. 47-53. JOHN WHITGIFT. 231 the Prayer-book, deviating from it only in these small matters, might not henceforth be called in question for their neglects ; that the bishops restore such clergy as were suspended or deprived for refusing to subscribe the articles which had lately been tendered to them, or at any rate that they be permitted to preach ; that examinations of ministers ex officio mero be discon- tinued, and that conferences for religious discussion be tolerated. This remarkable petition which, as its introducer in the House of Commons declared, had been "digested and framed by godly and learned ministers," was passed by that body, and on December 14 sent up to the Lords, by whom it was rejected on February 25 following. The Puritan party were by no means daunted by this failure, and renewed their attack on the very day after the peers had dismissed their petition, by a measure providing that marriages could be lawfully solemnised at any time in the year. A Bill which provided that impropriate parsonages should be devoted to godly and charitable uses was also brought in, and another declaring that every one before he was ordained should give in Latin an account of his faith according to the Thirty-nine Articles was passed, while a separate one provided for the proper qualification of ministers. Pluralities were also assailed, and a determined effort was made to obtain what was termed a " Melius Inquirendum," that is a commission to ascertain the incomes of the bishops and clergy, a subject which would not have borne investigation, since it would have shown a glaring disproportion between the large revenues of the Anglican prelates and dignitaries and the starva- tion pittances doled out to the poor vicars and curates, and might, more shockingly still, have re- vealed the iniquitous church robberies perpetrated by and for Elizabeth's greatest ministers and statesmen. 232 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. The Bill for the issuing of that commission passed the Commons, but when it came to the House of Lords it was vehemently opposed by the archbishop, as indeed were all the others. In his speech against the Plurality Bill, he delivered not only his own opinions, but those of the clergy also, as set forth in the petition which Convocation presented to the queen. His arguments for the most part were those which have been used by all anti-reformers from time immemorial. It was, he declared, " a most dangerous Bill " dangerous not to the true interests of religion and the spread of the gospel, for on those topics he said nothing, but to the material interests of "the better sort of the clergy," that is, of course, the pluralists, whom it would "discourage." Besides, and this was a very weighty consideration, the more equal dis- tribution of benefices would increase the number of " the factious and froward ministers," by which phrase he meant those clergy who, with all their liturgical and rubrical shortcomings, had at heart the salvation of the souls of their flocks, and this the archbishop declared was the main object of the Bill. His great argument, however, against the removal of pluralism in the Church lay in his statement, sad and startling if correct, that out of the eight thousand eight hundred and odd benefices in England and Wales there were not six hundred that yielded an income sufficient for the maintenance of a learned man, nor, if there were, could the third part of such ministers be found to supply them. It appeared, therefore, that rather than have an increase of ministers who had preaching and pastoral gifts, but whose "spiced" consciences, to use Parker's phrase, would not allow them to conform in all points, Arch- bishop Whitgift preferred to have a considerable number of parishes remain practically unserved. To all the other demands of the Puritans he gave for JOHN WHITGIFT. 233 reply an emphatic non possumus, and, with only too much success, endeavoured by an appeal to the queen's jealousy of all invasion of her ecclesiastical prerogative to infuse into her mind his own dislike of the measures. The reasons there adduced for his opposition were of a kind that would have served equally for the support of the most monstrous abuses. Thus he objected to people being married when they chose because it was "contrary to the old canons continually observed amongst us," and further, that it " contained matter which tendeth to the slaunder of this Church as having hitherto maintained an error." Even for those sinks of iniquity, the Ecclesiastical Courts, and the vile practice of fleecing the clergy by episcopal Visitations, he had something to say in their defence, or rather against their being meddled with, which was that to abolish or reform them " might reach to the overthrow of ecclesiastical jurisdiction." In the attitude which he now assumed against all assaults upon the Church, or what he deemed to be such, and which he maintained to the very close of his life, Whitgift revealed his ideas of the welfare of the Church to be of the narrowest, and indeed of the poorest. They were bounded by the material prosperity and prestige of the Establishment, the maintenance intact of all its ancient formularies and musty canons, and the suppression of everybody who should lay so much as a ringer on the fringe of its garment. Here he was inflexible, and was to be turned aside by no man or body of men, however great or entitled to consideration they might be. He had snubbed Burghley, and treated the remonstrance of the Privy Council with contemptuous disdain, as though any interference with the Church was an impertinence. Even Parliament itself he viewed from the same 234 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. standpoint, and it was his aim and fixed policy to exclude it from all control of ecclesiastical affairs, which were to be managed solely by the queen and the bishops. Thus he wrote to her when stating his objections to the Bill for the Qualification of Ministers: "If this pass in Parliament, it can be altered but by Parliament. Whereas, if it is but as a canon from us by your Majesty's authority, it may be observed or altered at your pleasure." Such opinions were in perfect agreement with those of Elizabeth, who in her speech from the throne ex- pressed her displeasure with the House of Commons for dealing with matters which belonged peculiarly to herself, and ordered the Speaker not to read any such Bills that might be offered. Parliament, how- ever, persisted in their demands for religious reform, and introduced a Bill which in its provisions included a new Prayer-book, to be used instead of the one prescribed by the Act of Uniformity, and also a petition that all ecclesiastical laws then in force might be abolished in favour of others which it set forth. The Speaker, bearing in mind the royal command, refused to allow it to be read, and adhered to his resolution despite the anger and menaces of the House. Elizabeth, exasperated at what she regarded as a defiance of her authority, commanded the Speaker to give her the book and the petition, and sent to the Tower those members who had been most zealous in their behalf, and here for a time all attempts to reform the Church on the part of the Puritans came to an end. Having thus checkmated the attempts to reform the Church made by the Puritans in the House of Commons, Whitgift gave his attention to other matters concerning that party. One of their chief leaders was Walter Travers, Reader at the Temple, who had been a candidate for the Mastership, when, through Whitgift's influence, JOHN WHITGIFT. 235 the celebrated Richard Hooker was appointed to it in 1585. He had taken a principal part in drawing up the Book of Discipline, the famous model of Puritan worship and government, and was to all intents and purposes what would now be termed a dissenter. For though as Reader at the Temple he delivered lectures or sermons, he refused to conform to the Liturgy, and in point of fact was not a clergy- man at all, for to episcopal ordination he had an unconquerable aversion, and had been made a minister by a presbytery at Antwerp. Personal disappointment sharpened the edge of theological antagonism, and what his successful rival taught from the pulpit on the Sunday morning he contradicted from the same place in the afternoon. Hooker, always a man of peace, wearied with the strife, prayed to be removed, and the Archbishop gave him the Rectory of Boscombe, Wiltshire, to which place he retired, and immortalised that humble parsonage by writing there his "Ecclesiastical Polity." Travers remained, but only to fall into the hands of Whitgift, by whose means he was brought before the Privy Council, and on the ground of his not having been ordained by a bishop, which was strongly urged against him by the primate, he was dismissed from his lectureship, and finally deprived. Of the many acts which led the nonconformists to regard Whitgift as an enemy to the gospel, this was one of the chief. Foremost among such acts was his prohibition of Cartwright's " Confutation of the Rhemists' Transla- tion of the New Testament." That translation was made by the Romanists, and sprung out of their desire to counteract what they considered to be the mischief of the Protestant versions of the Scriptures, and notably of the Bishops' Bible. It was taken from the Vulgate, and was regarded by Protestants with distrust and aversion, as being not only full of errors, but designedly so. Moreover, it was 236 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. accompanied with notes, which in the opinion of its enemies contained the virus of popery. An answer to it was felt to be necessary, and Queen Elizabeth asked Beza to undertake the work, but he declined it, from the conviction that an Englishman would be the more suitable person to perform it, and recommended Cartwright. The queen, however, gave him no direct command to do so, but Leicester, Walsingham, Dr. Whitaker, and others so strongly urged him to the work, that he undertook it, but on the eve of its publication Whitgift prohibited it on the very reasonable ground that in confuting Romanism Cartwright had attacked much that was held important by Anglican divines. His treatment of Barrow and Greenwood also exaspe- rated the Puritans. Henry Barrow, a gentleman of a good Suffolk family, was a graduate of Cambridge and a member of Gray's Inn. Notorious at first for the licentious- ness of his life, he afterwards became equally if not more so for his religious zeal, which manifested itself not only in the usual way of opposition to the Established Church, but of disapproval of all other creeds and sects. In his eyes even Cartwright was a hypocrite, because, though refusing to conform to the ceremonies of the Church, he was willing to preach in it, while even Calvin was an idle shepherd, having been guilty of composing a Catechism. As for the Church of England, it was every way vile, its worship being idolatrous, its prayers blasphemous, its ministry unscriptural, its preachers false, and all its members unsanctified. 1 For these and other opinions freely avouched, he, together with Greenwood, who was a minister, and John Penry, fell into the clutches of the Court of High Commission, and in November, 1586, were convented before Archbishop Whitgift, at Lambeth, 1 " Athenoe Cantabrigienses," ii. p. 151. JOHN WHITGIFT. 237 and sent to prison, but, promising to conform, were soon released. Whitgift's eye, however, was upon them, and, in 1588, Barrow and Greenwood, having reverted to their former practices, were again appre- hended by his order, and lodged in gaol. There they remained nearly four years and a half, during which time repeated, but vain attempts were made by several divines of the Church of England to persuade them to conform. They refused, and on March 21, J 593i were tried at the Old Bailey for publishing seditious books, and, having been found guilty, were sentenced to death and executed on April 6 following. Yet they were loyal subjects, and on the scaffold, so it has been said, prayed for the queen, and that she might have a long and prosperous reign. The fate of these unfortunate and innocent men received much public sympathy, and they were regarded as martyrs by a large part of the nation, who ascribed their death to the action of the bishops, and especially of Whitgift. While these proceedings were in progress, and Barrow and Greenwood were in their dungeons, with the rope and knife of the hangman looming large before them, the archbishop renewed his attacks on his old adversary Cartwright, who in the mean time had been presented by the Earl of Leicester to the mastership of a hospital he had founded at Warwick. He was still under suspension, and had no licence to preach, but occasionally did so in some of the neighbouring churches. He took the same deep interest he had previously done in the reformation of the Church, and joined with some like-minded ministers of those parts in holding meetings for the discussion of the subject. Whitgift at once swooped down upon him, and, in 1590, summoned him before the Court of High Commission, but, acting on the advice of Burghley, did not himself appear, though in reality he controlled the trial, which was conducted by Aylmer, Bishop of London. 238 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. The oath ex officio mere was tendered to Cart- wright, but he refused to take it, and was forthwith ' committed to the Fleet, bail being refused. He was then an old man in broken health and a sufferer both from the gout and the stone, but his petitions for release were disregarded, and he remained in prison till May 13, 1591, when he was tried in the Star Chamber, a Court, as Clarendon has observed, which was but the Privy Council, or a select part of it, assembled in another room, an irresponsible tribunal sitting without a jury, and that could punish without regard to law. On this occasion the archbishop presided, and was assisted by the Lord Chancellor Hatton, the two Chief Justices, the Attorney-General, Popham, and others. The " ex officio " oath was again offered to the prisoner, and again refused, for though Cart- wright was willing to take the oath of supremacy, as he had done several times before, and to deny the false allegations now made against him, he objected to be made an instrument for incriminating others. Accordingly, although the Chief Justice, 1 Sir Christopher Wray, declared that in law there was no case against him, he was sent back to the Fleet, bail being again refused. From his prison Cartwright wrote piteous letters to Burghley, Hatton, and even to the queen herself, and great interest was made in his behalf, King James of Scotland even writing to Elizabeth in his favour. All, however, was to no purpose, for Whitgift resented such interference with his own department, and refused to liberate Cartwright until he should sign a degrading recantation, which, it is needless to say, he scorned to do. He was, therefore, detained in the Fleet for some time, but was finally released 1 Sir C. Wray was Chief Justice of England ; the other, Sir E. Anderson, of the Court of Common Pleas. JOHN WHITGIFT. 239 through Burghley's influence, and even permitted to preach, though unlicensed. Such proceedings as these made him the object of the bitterest hatred of the Puritan party, and he became the target of their unsparing abuse. Chief among these assailants were the writer or writers who, under the name of Martin Marprelate, attacked the primate and other bishops and clergy with an envenomed ribaldry, which even Neale, the apologist and historian of that party, is obliged to reprobate. " The Pope of Lambeth," " Caiaphas of Canterbury," " Beelzebub of Canterbury," were among the titles by which the ecclesiastical head of the Anglican Church was designated. The feelings of the clergy also towards their " right reverend fathers " were the reverse of cordial, and, in 1584, the Lower House of Convocation presented an address to the queen, in which, and in very explicit language, they stated their grievances against their diocesans. The queen herself disapproved of them still more, and in her speech from the throne at this time severely reprimanded them, warning them that if they did not amend they should end, for she was minded to depose them. Soon afterwards, too, when the primate with other bishops waited upon her to present the subsidy of the clergy, she availed herself of the opportunity to give them a severe lecture on the remissness of the bishops in enforcing conformity of doctrine and ritual, and especially in their not having "greater care in making ministers," some of whom, she declared, " were of such lewd life and corrupt behaviour," that they were " not worthy to come into any honest company." Whitgift promised that the matters spoken of by the queen should receive his attention. " Madam," he replied, " for mine own part I will look unto these things as well as I can, and take 240 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. such order with my brethren as I trust they will look better unto such things. But, madam, let me use the best means I can ; some things must be amiss." Then Burghley took up his parable against the bishops, quoting Bishop Overton as the chief of the episcopal sinners in respect to ordaining unfit persons. Bishop Young, the queen's Almoner, said a few words to the effect that he had never made more than three ministers in one day, adding that " if they would have better clergymen, they must find better livings." * The year after this interview the queen showed how little she really cared for placing fit men in high positions in the Church in comparison with her anxiety to gratify the wishes of her favourites, by her appointment of a certain Mr. Willis to the Deanery of Worcester at the suit of the Earl of Leicester. She went through the form of asking the archbishop to inquire and report as to his fitness, and Whitgift did so, and informed her Majesty that though the man was Master of St. John's College, Oxford, he was unlearned, and his wisdom consisted especially in matters of husbandry, and, further, that his wife, her sister and daughter, all of whom lived with him, were women of evil report. " God forbyd," he wrote to Burghley, respecting the earl's nominee, " that such a man shold be placed there. From that fowntaine," by which he meant Leicester, "are spronge almost all the evle bishops and denes now living in England, and yet where is greater zeal pretended ? " Yet despite the primate's protest the queen gave the deanery to Willis, and it must be said that, whatever Archbishop Whitgift's faults may have been, indifference to the best interests of the Church in placing fit men in its highest posts was not one of them. His attitude to doctrinal formularies has been made 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. clxxvi. 69. February 27, 1585. - Calendar of Cecil MSS. : Hatfield, pt. in. p. 153. JOHN WHITGIFT. 24! the subject of severe criticism as though he expressed opinions for the sake of peace which he did not in reality hold, especially on the at that time vexata questio of Calvinism, which, when he became arch- bishop, was the prevalent system of theology both at Oxford and Cambridge. To utter anything contrary to these or cognate doctrines was held to be preaching " another gospel," and for doing so in the pulpit of Great St. Mary's, Cambridge, one William Barrett, Fellow of Caius College, was convened before the vice-chancellor and the heads of the colleges, by whom he was ordered to recant his " errors," which were declared to have been " raked out of the dunghill of Poperie and Pelagianisme." l He obeyed, but in a manner so " unreverent," that it was considered to heighten his offence, and he was threatened with expulsion, whereupon he recanted his recantation. The matter was finally referred to Archbishop Whitgift for settlement, who, while disapproving of Barrett's harsh treatment, found himself compelled to pronounce an opinion on the controversy itself. Accordingly, he summoned to Lambeth divers divines to a personal conference, and by letters obtained the opinions of others. The result of their deliberations appeared in nine propositions known as the Lambeth Articles, and which expressed strictly and plainly the dogmas of Calvin both as to predestination and reprobation. Those who were to be saved had been fixed from all eternity, and their number could neither be lessened nor increased, the cause of that predestination was nothing in them but the alone will of God. It was impossible for them to fall finally from grace, and it was their privilege to have a full assurance of their salvation. Everybody else would inevitably be condemned. 1 See notice of Barrett in " Athenoe Cantabrigienses," ii. p. 237. He subsequently became a Roman Catholic, and died in that faith. R 242 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. It has been supposed 1 that Whitgift put forth these articles only to conciliate the stronger party, so as to gain their " adherence to the discipline of the English Church." There is, however, no evidence to support the conjecture, and it must be dismissed as not being consistent with the honesty of his character. The Lambeth Articles were not, of course, authori- tative, and Whitgift failed in his endeavour to get them accepted, for Lord Burghley strongly dis- approved of them, and the queen suppressed them by an Injunction, and at the Hampton Court Conference, in 1604, they were rejected. They were, however, at that time received by the Irish Church. Whitgift took small part in general politics, and was not sworn in as a member of the Privy Council for a year after his appointment to the primacy, but in February, 1585, he took his seat there, Burghley desiring his co-operation against the Earl of Leicester. Though he often opposed the Lord Treasurer, especially when questions relating to the Church were under debate, yet in other matters he gave him a general support. When, in 1586, the detection of the conspiracy of Babington and Ballard in behalf of Mary, Queen of Scots, caused her execution to be anxiously discussed by the Ministers of Elizabeth, he acted a very ambiguous part, expressing his opinions so "warily that it was impossible to perceive their drift. The deed, however, having been done, and the queen with her usual hypocrisy repudiating all participation in it, Whitgift joined the servile crew of statesmen in acquitting her of the intention to have the sentence executed, and with them laid the blame and odium of the transaction on Secretary Davison, who was punished with imprisonment and a ruinous fine of 1 Hook's "Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury," vol. x. pp. 158-60. JOHN WHITGIFT. 243. 10,000. In this iniquitous sentence the archbishop, to save the queen's credit, concurred. During the rest of Elizabeth's reign the life of Whitgift contains no incidents that need to be recorded. He was present at her death, which happened March 24, 1603, and it devolved on him as Archbishop of Canterbury to administer the last consolations of religion, and prepare her for the great change which awaited her. It was a difficult task, for the queen had always shown a great dislike to experimental religion, to use a phrase then much in vogue. The Puritans were wont to call her a Papist, and the Romanists branded her as an atheist : and a century and a half after her decease John Wesley 1 was not ashamed to describe her as being "as just and merciful as Nero, and as good a Christian as Mahomet." Yet in truth it was far otherwise, though her spirit was too high and her intellect too robust to be subjected to any man or to any system. There may have been occasions when she jested at religion at any rate at the religion of strict Protestants but things were different now, and the queen turned her thoughts with intense eagerness to the message of salvation. The archbishop discharged his duty faithfully, and, the circumstances being considered, effectually, for though the queen was in perfect possession of her senses and continued to be so to the end, yet her power of speech was gone, or if not entirely was so difficult through the ulceration of her throat, that she could only express her thoughts and wishes by signs. The archbishop began by questioning her as to the state of her mind, and whether she believed in the Protestant faith which she had caused to be professed, and looked to be saved by Christ's merits and mercy only. To this she responded by raising her hand and eyes to heaven, a sign which Dr. Parry, her 1 Tyerman's " Life of Wesley," vol. iii. p. 32. 244 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. chaplain, entreated her to give if she so believed. He then addressed her Majesty in brief and pathetic terms, reminding her that though she was a great queen in the sight of men, yet before God she was but a poor sinner, who needed His pardon equally with the meanest of her subjects, and besought her to fix her mind on that great Being into whose presence she was about to appear. Then he knelt in prayer, using the form prescribed in the Visitation of the Sick, in which the queen appeared to join with extreme devotion, and at the Name of Jesus would often lift up her hands and eyes to heaven in mute but touching token of her faith in the Redeemer. The soul of the dying woman was now moved to its depths, and nothing would satisfy her but prayer, and when the archbishop would have left her she detained him that he might once more intercede for her at the throne of grace. Indeed, even after he had concluded his ministrations with the blessing she implored him, by signs, to continue. She would not hear him speak to her of hope of longer life, but when in his prayer or speech he spoke of heaven and its everlasting joys she pressed his hand. Soon after the archbishop had ceased to pray the queen became unconscious, in which condition she expired about three o'clock in the morning of Wednesday, March 24, 1603, but she died so easily that the moment of her dissolution was not perceived. 1 When the death of Elizabeth became known, a vast grief pervaded the hearts of her subjects, who mourned her loss as a personal bereavement, and in that sad hour she regained the affection of the people, which of late she had forfeited by the execution of their idol, the Earl of Essex. For now that she had passed away, her failings and errors, both as queen and woman, were forgotten, and men thought only of the .deep and true affection which she had ever shown to 1 " Manningham's Diary," published by Camden Society. JOHN WHITGIFT. 245 her subjects, and of the wisdom and success with which for nearly half a century she had governed England. To Archbishop Whitgift, her death must have appeared an irreparable calamity. The Privy Council, with himself at their head, met within a few hours of the royal demise, and at eleven o'clock that morning proclaimed the new Sovereign. The people, as we are told by one who was present, listened with much interest to the announcement of King James's accession, but with- out any manifestation of the gladness which such an event usually elicits. Their "joye," remarks this bystander, was " silent [and there was] no great shouting." 1 This was due not only to the general sorrow for the queen's death, but to the appre- hension of the changes to be expected under a new dynasty. In that apprehension the archbishop could not fail to have largely shared. For the new king had spoken of the Communion Office in the Anglican Prayer-book as an " evil-said Mass in English," 2 and it was well known that both the Romanists and the Puritans counted largely, and indeed with reason, on his patronage and support. A general religious toleration was the least of the evils which at this juncture the Church of England had to fear, and it would be fortunate if a worse fate did not befall it. Yet to an establishment whose strength was believed to lie in its power to persecute its opponents, even toleration must have seemed full of danger, and to ecclesiastics like Whitgift meant effacement and de- struction. But, whatever apprehensions he might have felt as to the conduct of the king were soon set at rest by the gracious reception which James accorded to a message of congratulation conveyed to him through Dr. Neville, Dean of Canterbury, from the 1 " Walter Yonge's Diary," pp. 146, 147. - Calderwood's " History of the Church of Scotland," p. 256. 246 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. Archbishop, in the name of the Church of England, assuring his Majesty of their loyalty and devotion to his service. In the following May the primate himself waited on the king at Theobald's, then the residence of Sir Robert Cecil, and received from his own mouth the announcement of his intention to stand by the Church of England, and maintain its establishment as in the former reign. Very different indeed was his treatment of the famous Millenary petition, falsely so called, since, though it pretended to be signed by a thousand Puritan ministers, it contained only eight hundred and twenty-five signatures, many of which also were fictitious. 1 The King hated Puritanism, and in England thanked God for bringing him into the promised land, where religion was purely professed, and con- trasted his previous state of subjection to "beardlesse boyes," who " would brave him to his face," the ministers of the kirk, with his present one of honour and order, "where he sat among grave, learned, and reverend men," by which epithets he desig- nated the prelates and dignitaries of the Anglican Church. 2 Whitgift was present at the Hampton Court Con- ference, January 24, 1604, and the king having expounded and defended the oath ex officio mero with such ability that the bystanders " stood amazed," and Bishop Bancroft's heart melted within him, the primate exclaimed "that undoubtedly his Maiestie spoke by the speciall assistance of God's Spirite."* The language thus applied to the commendation of a matter so unspiritual was certainly ill chosen, but if the archbishop, as there seems no reason to doubt, 1 " Hutton Correspondence," p. 174. 2 Bishop Barlow's " Summe and Substance;" "Neale's History,' etc. 3 Bishop W. Barlow's " Summe and Substance," p. 93. JOHN WHITGIFT. 247 believed what he said, then, though we who live in such different times may deem it blameworthy, there is no good ground for ascribing to him that " ex- cessive flattery " of James with which he has been charged. With this exception the demeanour and language of Whitgift throughout the Conference were wholly suitable to his exalted station in the Church, and to his eminence as a theologian. Before this conference, Whitgift had, as primate, placed the crown of England on the head of James, and after it his thoughts were very anxiously directed to another quarter, namely, the Parliament, which was soon to meet, when, as was but to be expected, a scheme for reforming the Church, or rather of revolu- tionising it, would be again brought forward. Accordingly, he summoned a meeting of the bishops, at Fulham Palace, to consider the steps to be taken at this important juncture, but it was almost his last official act. For, returning in his barge to Lambeth, the day being raw and gusty, he caught a severe chill, and his system was further weakened by over fatigue on the following Sunday, when after attending service in Whitehall Chapel, he had re- mained to take part in a conference with the king and the Bishop of London, and without partaking of any refreshment necessary to his advanced age. While in the palace he had a stroke of paralysis, and was conveyed to Lambeth. The king sent him a gracious message, that he would ask God to spare his life as the greatest blessing to himself and the nation, and soon after- wards visited him in person. The dying primate endeavoured to converse with his majesty in Latin, but his utterance was broken and inarticulate, though from the few words which escaped him, and which were frequently repeated, " Pro ecclesid Dei" " Pro ecclesia Dei" it was evident that the welfare of the Church of England, over which he had presided for 248 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. more than twenty years, was the subject that then lay nearest to his heart. When the king had left him, he signified his wish to write to his majesty, but his ringers could not hold the pen, and he let it fall on the paper with a sigh. In this state he languished till the following day, when he expired, February 29, 1604. He was interred at Croydon, March 2, and his funeral obsequies were solemnised with great pomp on the twenty-seventh of that month, the sermon being preached by a former pupil at Trinity, Gervase Babington, Bishop of Worcester. A monument, with his effigy recumbent and his hands in the act of prayer, was afterwards placed over his remains. Archbishop Whitgift was never married, but he had brothers to whom he was liberal, though not more so than was fitting. He left little, having dispersed in his lifetime his revenue in hospitality and charity and in the encouragement of learning. The errors of Archbishop Whitgift as an ecclesi- astical ruler belonged to the age more than to the individual. If he did not see, what a much later generation saw so clearly, that every man has a right to worship God according to his conscience, he was no blinder than his contemporaries. His views were in harmony with the laws of the land, with the Injunc- tions of the sovereign, and even with the opinions of those who reviled him as " the Pope of Lambeth," and who declared their form of Church govern- ment to be of divine institution, and " the one mould in which every Christian church should be cast." l The judgment of men like Stow, Camden, and Wotton was in his favour, while Fuller wrote of him as " one of the worthiest men that ever the English hierarchy did enjoy." 2 1 S. R. Gardiner's " History of England," i. p. 17. 2 "Church History," vol. v. p. 316. JOHN MAY. 249 JOHN MAY. 1528-1598. BISHOP OF CARLISLE, 1577. JOHN MAY, younger brother of William May who died Archbishop-elect of York, was born in Suffolk, and was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he was Bible-clerk, and in 1550 a Fellow, in which year he also took his degree of B.A. At this time he devoted himself to light literature, and spent two years in the composition of a volume of plays to be acted by members of his college. Like his illustrious brother, he conformed to Romanism in the reign of Mary, and was ordained in 1557, but abandoning it under Elizabeth, was elected to the Mastership of Catharine Hall, Cambridge, in 1559. During the next ten years he received much preferment, the benefices of Long Stanton, Cam- bridgeshire ; North Creake, Norfolk ; Darfield, York- shire ; St. Dunstan-in-the-East, a canonry of Ely, and the Archdeaconry of the East Riding of York, all which he seems to have held together. He was also, in 1565, appointed Lent preacher at Court, Archbishop Parker and the Earls of Leicester and Shrewsbury being amongst his patrons. His position as Archdeacon of York brought him into connection with that part of England, and, as he was an active, bustling sort of man, he acquired an influence which was so offensive to two of the leading members of the Council of the North, Sir Thomas Gargrave and Dean Hutton, that to be freed from his meddlesomeness they urged the Government to make him Bishop of Carlisle : Grindal, then Arch- bishop of Canterbury, but in disgrace, opposed the 250 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. appointment in vain, and thus mildly remonstrated with those who had advised it : " Ye 2 comendett him, to be rydde of him ; and nowe Simon is as good as Peter." l He was consecrated to Carlisle, September 29, 15/7, and was permitted to hold all his preferments with his bishopric ; but his conduct entirely justified Grindal's opposition, for its main, if not its sole, features were covetousness and tyranny. He was accused, and apparently with very good reason, of refusing to institute clergymen to livings that he might "wyne the six months" 2 and so get the patronage into his own hands. We nowhere read of any efforts he made to evangelize his diocese, but we meet with an application from him to Govern- ment for a grant of Penrith Castle as a prison for the Cumberland recusants. His "great facility in committing the charge of sowles " to incompetent persons appears in the diocesan report of his ex- cellent successor Robinson. His life was spent in poverty and debt, though to his other commendams that of Bowness had been added. He died at Rose Castle on February 15, 1598, and was buried twelve hours after his decease. He was married and left a family. 1 "Hutton Correspondence," p. 57. Grindal had objected to the appointments both of Barnes and May, and it would appear from his letter that both had been preferred for the same reason. 2 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cclxii. 89. March 30, 1597. JOHN YOUNG. 251 JOHN YOUNG. 1534-1605. BISHOP OF ROCHESTER, 1578. BISHOP JOHN YOUNG was born in Cheapsjde, London, and educated at Merchant Taylors' School. He graduated B.A. at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, in 1552, and was Fellow in 1553 and Master in 1569. When Vice-chancellor he showed a bold and upright spirit in maintaining the rights and privileges of the University, even against the royal authority, for he protested against the Ecclesiastical Commissioners exercising any jurisdiction within it. 1 He was largely beneficed in London, where from 1563 to 1572 he received St. Martin, Ludgate ; St. Giles-without-Cripplegate ; St. Magnus, London Bridge ; a prebend of St. Paul's, a canonry at Westminster, and also a prebend of Southwell in Nottinghamshire. He was a noted preacher, and two of his sermons delivered at Court and at Paul's Cross are in existence. In his ecclesiastical views he was a strong Churchman with a noted antipathy to all nonconformists, and Bishop Aylmer testified that he was " fit to bridle innovators, not by authority only but by weight of argument." 2 He was in complete agreement with Whitgift in his treatment of the Puritans, and signed the articles for the enforcing conformity drawn up by the archbishop in 1583. Like Whitgift, also, he was a strong Calvinist, and "had no manner of scruple," as he declared, to the Lambeth Articles, 1 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. xlix. 29, p. 328. January 17, 1569. ' J Strype's " Annals," II. ii. p. 184. 252 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. except that he was not quite sure that he agreed with the fourth that " the non-predestinate will be damned for their sins," doubting, indeed, whether he understood it. He was a favourite with the queen, who much consulted him in ecclesiastical matters, and at last was preferred to the Bishopric of Rochester, and consecrated on March 1 6, 1578. The see being one of the poorest, he was therefore allowed to retain some of his benefices " in commendam," but though richer bishoprics, as Norwich and Chichester, were afterwards l offered him, he nobly declined them, being of the same mind with the saintly Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man, who refused an English bishopric, declaring that he would not leave his wife because she was poor. Little of his diocesan rule is on record except his opposition to the land-grabbers, who would have seized the estates of the hospital at Chatham, and his dealings with the nonconformists, with whom as an Ecclesiastical Commissioner he came into collision. To their retaliatory libels, however, we are indebted for the knowledge of his extreme liberality. They accused him of covetousness, but it appeared from his reply to Lord Burghley that during the seventeen years that he had held the bishopric, he had spent out of his income of 340 a year, 2 ^250 annually in meat and drink alone, leaving but 90 for all other expenses whatsoever, including that of his son's education. If such housekeeping is censured as being too lavish, it must be remembered that the queen expected her bishops to be hospitable. He died on April 10, 1605. He was married and had one son. 1 Strype's "Life of Whitgift," vol. i. p. 337; State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. clxxiii. 15, 201. 2 The value of his bishopric was 220, and of his " commendams" ;i2o. Strype's " Annals," iv. p. 316. MARMADUKE MIDDLETON. 253 MARMADUKE MIDDLETON. -1593- BISHOP OF WATERFORD, 1579 ; ST. DAVID'S, 1582. BISHOP MARMADUKE MIDDLETON was the son of Thomas Middleton of Cardiganshire, and a descendant of the Middletons of Middleton in Westmorland. The date and place of his birth are unknown, but he was educated at the grammar school of Ripon. We first meet with him in Cambridge gaol, where he was imprisoned by order of the vice-chancellor for adultery, and afterwards ignominiously expelled from the town. He next appears as beneficed in Ireland, possibly having forged his letters of orders as he afterwards did a will, holding Coolock in the diocese of Dublin, and Dunboyn and Killare in that of Meath. On May 31, 1579, the royal mandate was issued for his consecration to the Bishopric of Waterford. That the bishop was the same person who had been driven from Cambridge is shown by the following passage in a letter from one Ralph Tonstall to Burghley, about a cause then in the Exchequer : " I beseech your lordship be my good lord. My cause is good, yet the cost, this ten years, is infinite. The informer counterfeited her Majesty's attorney's hand ; his father and brother did their penance here for forgery. Malus corvus, malum ovum ; the sup- porter of the charge is one Middleton, a bishop some time in Ireland, who in person came in this cause and against the school at Ripon in the Duchy Court The man being utterly unlearned and banished Cambridge, might yet in reason have learned not to seek his nurse's overthrow, I mean that 254 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. school where what he hath there he got it." l The statement here made of his ignorance agrees with the same charge brought against him by Marprelate, who places him in his list of episcopal " famous dunses." It has been doubted whether Bishop Middleton ever received episcopal consecration, and, as was the case with Barlow and others, there is no docu- mentary evidence of his ever having done so. Still, as the question was not raised in his lifetime, and as he subsequently assisted Archbishop Whitgift in the consecration of Bishop Wickham, we must believe that he was duly consecrated. Of his Irish episcopate little need be said. It was concurrent with dangerous and treasonable risings in Ireland, and the policy of the English Government being to crush the " rebels " and " traitors," as the Irish who revolted against the rule of Elizabeth and the establishment of Protestantism were called, he was chosen as one well suited to effect it. The city of Waterford abounded in arrogante papistes, and the bishop, after a year's residence there, wrote 2 of its inhabitants as " styfnecked, stoborne, papisticall, and incorrigable." As he was a red-hot Protestant, with iconoclastic propensities, and fiery Welsh blood in his veins, arbitrary and impatient of control, he was not likely to be on good terms with the Irish. Nor was he, for they hated him intensely, and brought all kinds of accusations against him, and even attempted his life. One Mayor of Waterford, James Sherlock, accused him to Walsingham of leading a "bad life" and of slander, 8 another, Richard Strange, also wrote to Walsingham of the bishop's revenge against the inhabitants in charging them with treason because 1 Calendar of Hatfield MSS., pt. ii. p. 526. Date of letter, October 20, 1582. - State Papers (Ireland), Elizabeth, vol. Ixxiv. 53. July 21, 1580. 3 Calendar State Papers (Ireland), vol. Ixviii. 45, p. 269. November 1 8, 1580. MARMADUKE MIDDLETON. 255 of their stopping " the gaps of his greediness." l The citizens also accused him to the Lord Deputy of sacrilege. It must be said, however, that the English officials at Dublin regarded these charges as false, and that when those who brought them were ordered by the Lord Deputy to make their accusation in public none of them appeared. It should also be added that Archbishop Loftus and the Lord Deputy highly commended his " worthiness," " zeal, and honest conversation." His continuance at Waterford would, as the Lord Deputy wrote, have " put his lief in peril," 2 and this, combined with his poverty, for his bishopric was worth but 150 a year, and even that pittance he found hard to get, made him anxious for another sphere. Accordingly he came to England in 1581, and was elected Bishop of St. David's September 28, 1582. On making his Visitation he found his Welsh diocese nearly as bad as his Irish one. There was, it is true, but "small poperie" but a great deal of "Athisme," and his new flock was "wonderfully geven over to vicious life." The clergy, as he re- ported to Walsingham, 8 were a miserable set, and " Relygion was contemned " through their " baseness," and " the Gospell hindred through ignorant pastors." Even the best livings were " possest w'h unlearned men," and there were but fourteen preachers in the whole diocese. Many also of those who served cures, and in some cases had done so for fourteen years, were not clergymen at all, and officiated by means of forged letters of orders. His own condition was very deplorable, for all his land, " even to the verie doores " of his palace, had 1 Calendar State Papers (Ireland), vol. Ixviii. 23, p. 341. January 14, 1582. 2 State Papers (Ireland), Elizabeth. 3 State Papers, Elizabeth, vols. clxii. 29 ; clxxxviii. i. September 10, 1583. 256 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. been leased out by his predecessor, and all his " spirituall livinges, worth ioby the yere," had been " advowsoned," and his annual income, all necessary deductions having been made, did not exceed i$o. 1 Nor was there any hope of improvement, since the impropriate benefices, which formed the greater part of the episcopal revenue, had been leased out before the statute, and would not return to it for fifty years. As far as he could he prosecuted the Romanists, and waged ceaseless war against superstition, making ''utterly extinct" copes, altars, and shrines. He seems, however, to have been non-resident, at any rate he spent much of his time at Stow Castle, near Lewisham, in Kent, where he had a house. It was during his residence there that he committed an act which not only showed his gross neglect of Church order, but, still worse, his disregard of truth. For, having on one occasion administered ordina- tion in the parsonage, 2 and observing afterwards that his secretary, in drawing up the letters of orders, had rightly used the words in cedibus? to describe the place where they had been given, he found fault with him for so doing, and said that he should have stated that the ordination had been held in a church. This, however, the secretary, who was more conscientious than his master, refused to do. This charge is cer- tainly in keeping with others brought against him by Marprelate, 4 as bigamy, and having married a woman on her death-bed to his brother. His relations with the clergy and inhabitants of the diocese generally were so strained, and their hostility towards himself so intense, that it is more than probable that his rule was harsh and arbitrary. Indeed, an attempt to kill him, as he was "at evening 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol clxii. 29. September 16, 1583. 2 Ibid., vol. cxc. 40. June 17, 1586. 3 sEdibus is Latin for a private house, as opposed to ade, a public building. 4 "Eni pistle to Terrible Priestes of Convocation." MARMADUKE MIDDLETON. 257 prayer with candle-light/' was made by some villains who had been instigated to the crime by one of his own archdeacons, " John Pratt, clerk." They " sore wounded two of the bishop's servants," and the bishop " was himself in danger of killing." The cause of offence had been his insisting on the archdeacon, who was a non-resident pluralist, residing at one of his cures. Such at least is Middleton's account of the matter set forth in a memorial to the queen, 1 but after the falsehood he dictated to his secretary it would seem to be necessary to hear the other side. The hatred against him, which had been long growing, at length showed itself in 1587, soon after his Visitation of the diocese, in charges brought against him before the Court of High Commission, and which embraced treason, murder, bigamy, and theft. The bishop, however, was acquitted through the " contrarieties " of the evidence, as he was on the renewal of the Articles of Accusation three years afterwards, when the promoter renounced them in open court. Then followed a cessation of hostilities for two years, when Bishop Middleton was cited to appear before the Archbishop of Canterbury and other commissioners to answer to the same charges, but this time with a very different result. The Commissioners met at Lambeth on May 8, 1 592, and' its episcopal members were, besides the primate, Aylmer, Bilson, and Coldwell. On the charges of dilapidation and embezzlement of Church property the court found Bishop Middleton guilty, and sus- pended him from the exercise of all his episcopal ministration and jurisdiction, which was transferred to Edmund Price, B.C.L., by a commission from the Archbishop of Canterbury, dated June 19, 1592. That commission recorded the nature of his offence, and that the objects of his fraudulent acts had been 1 Calendar of Hatfield MSS., pt. iv. p. 280. Date, January 15, 1592-3. S 258 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. not only his own cathedral, but particularly the College of Brecon. 1 On the sixth of the same month the archbishop's mandate to a similar effect had been issued to the clergy of the diocese of St. David's. 2 The bishop complained of the partiality of the court, and that the witnesses were his personal enemies. At the same time he was also prosecuted in the Star Chamber on the same charges, though the chief, and, so far as we know, the only one that was settled was the serious one of "contriving and publishing a forged will." 3 Of that he was convicted, and the court fined the bishop and " referred him to the High Com- mission for further proceedings." What those pro- ceedings were we learn from Heylin, a historian of repute, who tells us 4 that, as he had "heard from a person of good credit who was present," he was for- mally degraded from his episcopal office at Lambeth, when not only was his sentence read to him, but the very robes he wore as a bishop were stripped from off him. It has been said that he was also sent to the Tower, and pressed by divers bishops to answer certain articles on oath, when, claiming his privilege as a peer to answer them on his honour, the question was referred to the House of Lords, and decided against him. 5 Bishop Middleton did not long survive his disgrace, dying in 1593 on, or a little before, September 17, the date of the archbishop's commission for the 1 " Quia constabat dictum domn Epum Meneven dilapidasse Eccliam suam prsesertim vero Collegiam Christi Brecon ac intervertisse in eadem quosdam proventus ad pium & publicum usum destinatos in prophanos et privates (usus") (" Whitgift Register," at Lambeth). 2 Ibid. 3 Gobbet's " State Trials," vol. iii. p. 785, in the case of Attorney- General Banks v. The Bishop of Lincoln, tried in the Star Chamber (1637), for publishing false news, quotes the case of Bishop Middleton as tried the 34 Eliz. 4 " Examen Historicum," 1659, 8vo, p. 221. 6 Cooper's " Athence Cantab rigienses," vol. ii. p. 140 : Heylin. JOHN WOLTON. 259 exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the city and diocese of St. David's through the vacancy of the see by the death of the bishop. 1 He had been twice married, and, so Marprelate affirms, his first wife was still living when he married the second. As if this were not sufficiently disgraceful, we are informed by a modern writer 2 that his first wife was either his niece or his great-niece, but for this state- ment no authority is given. Richard Middleton, Archdeacon of Cardigan and author of the " Key of David," a theological treatise of some merit, is said 3 to have been his son, but of this there is no proof. Though Bishop Middleton was suspended and de- graded, he does not appear to have been deprived of his see, since in the above-mentioned commission of the archbishop it is spoken of as having been occu- pied by him up to his death and vacated but by that event. JOHN WOLTON. 1507-1593- BISHOP OF EXETER, 1579. BISHOP WOLTON was of a good Lancashire family, and was born at Wigan. He was brought up by his uncle the celebrated Dean Nowell, then Headmaster of Westminster, and sent to Brasenose College, Oxford, where he graduated, though when is not known. During the reign of Mary he lived abroad 1 " Sede Epali ibid per obitum dfni Ma. M[enevens] ultimi Epi ejusdem j'am vacante. Dat. 17, Die mensis Sep., A.D. 1593" (" Whit- gift Register"). 2 " History of Queen Elizabeth," by F. G. Lee, i. p. 190. 3 Granger's " Biographical History of England." 26O LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN PISHOPS. with his uncle, but on his return was ordained deacon and priest in 1560 by Grindal, then Bishop of London. Between 1563 and 1577 he received the benefices of Spaxton, 1 Somersetshire ; Braunton, Devonshire ; Kenn, Cornwall ; a canonry of Exeter ; and the Wardenship of the Collegiate Church, Manchester. He also received a licence to preach in the Province of Canterbury, and Grindal, in his request to the archbishop that he might receive a dispensation of non-residence, speaks of him as one " reported to be a man of very good conscience." 2 Bishop Wolton was famed as a preacher, but his sermons were practical rather than controversial, and yet were full of learning. When in residence at Exeter, he read the divinity lecture twice weekly in the cathedral, and preached there two sermons every Sunday ; and when the plague raged in that city so terribly that all the ministers but two fled, Wolton was one of the two, and remained at his post preaching publicly and visiting the sick. In 1577 he wrote his " Castell of Christians and Fortresse of the Faithfull," a remarkable anticipation of Bunyan's " Holy War," and in the next year was recommended by the Earl and Countess of Bedford for the Bishopric of Exeter, on the strength of his " lernyng, payne- fulnes in preaching and government, his honest lyf and other good partes." 3 The application was successful, and he was conse- crated on August 2, 1579, when he resigned his canonry, but retained his other benefices. His diocese abounded with " innovators " and sectaries of all sorts, on whom he enforced conformity, though in doing so was at first "gentle" to use his own phrase but discovering the uselessness of mild measures, 1 In his induction to Spaxton in 1563 he is described as B.A. 2 " Grindal's Remains " (Parker Society), p. 299. 3 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cxxvi. 4. October n, 1578. JOHN WOLTON. 26 1 adopted more severe ones, and thus announced to Burghley his new tactics : " Sythe the lambe's skynne wil doe no good, I will make tryall howe the lyon's will prevaile." l The year before, and while clothed with " the lambe's skynne," he had waged war, not altogether lamblike, against the sect of the Family of Love, who abounded in those parts, as was natural, since their doctrines were very acceptable to human nature, the cardinal one being that the people of God were exempt from all moral duties, and that all things, sin included, were lawful to them. Twenty of these loathsome Antinomians Bishop Wolton brought to open recantation of their errors in Exeter cathedral. 2 He also deprived one of the sect, Anthony Randal by name, of his rectory of Lydford, for teaching that the first three chapters of Genesis were only an allegory ; that to receive Christ was to be entirely justified and sanctified ; that the Church of England, like the Church of Rome, was a false Church, but that another was coming which would remain. Randal appealed against his sentence, first in the Court of Arches, then to the queen's delegates, and lastly before the Privy Council, but in vain, the judgment of the bishop being confirmed in all those tri- bunals. Having now donned the " lyon's skynne," his behaviour to his refractory ministers corresponded with his garb, and he went up and down his diocese suspending, depriving, and even imprisoning 3 the offenders. One of the sufferers was his only son, a fellow of Brasenose, Oxford, whom he had ordained and pre- ferred to a small living, but who, through the influence of the Jesuits, had become a Romanist. The bishop 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cliii. 55. May 20, 1582. 2 Lansdowne MSS., xxxiii. 15. June 6, 1581. 3 Petyt MSS., 538, 38 (62). 262 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. removed him from his benefice, and "for his lewd- nesse layd him in a common jayle, with irons upon him ; a kind of punishment," as he remarked in his account of the affair to Whitgift, "which parents themselves do not commonly inflict upon their own children." 1 The bishop felt the blow severely, both as a censure on his own indiscretion in admitting such a man into the ministry, and also on his own conduct as a father. The one he deeply deplored ; but for the other he found comfort in the reflection of the many scriptural precedents of religious families possessing evil mem- bers. There was a Ham in Noah's family in the ark, an Ishmael in Abraham's, an Esau in Isaac's, and amongst the college of the Apostles was found a devil. Another cleric, one Paget, parson of Lydford, was also suspended by the bishop for " some disorders," probably connected with the administration of divine service. Paget retaliated by drawing up articles of accusation against his diocesan, embracing various grave offences. Among them were simony, the improper conferring of orders, bribery, irregularity in Visitations, infrequent preaching even at his own benefices, neglect of sermons, connivance at the immorality of his household, and being in debt to his own clergy. To all these charges Wolton, in his letter to Archbishop Whitgift, gave a virtual denial, and they were doubtless merely the misrepresentations of malice, or, at the most, gross exaggerations. Yet, as the bishop himself admitted, there were a few grains of fact in this bushel of falsehood. He was in debt to his clergy, and he had during the six years of his episcopate ordained a few, not more than five or six at the most, who had not been " so well qualified as had been requisite." 1 Strype's "Life of Whitgift," vol. iii. p. 157. JOHN WOLTON. 263 As to the loan from his clergy, he could see no offence in that. On coming to the bishopric he was unable, for want of money, to buy beds, tables, and chairs for his palace, and some fifteen of his clergy had lent him 5 apiece, some of whom had already been paid in full, and the rest were quite ready to wait his convenience, and he had scandalized no one by the act. This may have been the case, but it was an unfortunate position to be placed in, and must have tended to the relaxation of strict discipline, and probably furnished the ground of the charge of his corrupt connivance at criminous clergy. As for his indiscreet ordinations, small though the number was on whom he had improperly laid hands, he acknowledged his fault, declaring that he was as " sorry as any mortal man," and did " heartily be- seech God and man of pardon," promising that he would never repeat the offence. He had done so at " the importunity " of certain great ones, his " betters," but had never ordained boys, as had been alleged. 1 Nothing came of these charges, and nothing ought to have come out of them. Bishop Wolton was a pious and laborious prelate, even in his declining years. He had been advised, being then in a delicate state of health, to take more care of himself, but replied with the Emperor Vespasian, that it behoved a general to die standing. Such was his own end, for, rising from his table where he had been engaged in writing letters, he walked across the room, when he fell down and expired, on March 13, 1593. He had been twice married, and left a family. His character and con- duct have received general praise, though Marprelate described him 2 as "Y e fox John of Exeter," but wherein his vulpineness . consisted we are not informed, and cannot guess. 1 Strype's "Life of Whitgift," vol. iii. pp. 155-158. 2 " Ha' any Worke for Cooper?" 264 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. WILLIAM CHADERTON. 1540-1608. BISHOP OF CHESTER, 1579; LINCOLN, 1595. BISHOP CHADERTON was born at Nuthurst, near Manchester, and was descended from an ancient family, an ancestor, Richard de Trafford, having possessed the manor of Chaderton at the close of the twelfth century. The grammar school of Man- chester, and the colleges of Magdalene and Pembroke in the University of Cambridge, gave him his early education, and he graduated B.A. in 1558. About 1561 he was elected fellow of Christ's College, and seems to have taken an active part in academical affairs. At the queen's visit to the University in 1564, his performance of the philosophy act is said to have met with approbation from her Majesty. In 1566 he became 1 Margaret Professor of Divinity; in 1568 president of Queens' College, and in the same year Archdeacon of the West Riding of York. In 1569 he was appointed to the Regius Professorship of Divinity, to a Prebend of York in 1574, and to a Canonry of Westminster in 1576. Merit, combined with influential patronage, is pretty certain to be rewarded, and Chaderton was not only a good scholar and theologian, but had the support of Leicester, to whom he was chaplain. His dependence on that nobleman was remarkably evinced in a letter he wrote to him asking leave to be married. The 1 His letter of thanks to Cecil for his appointment is in W. G. Searle's "History of Queens' College," published by the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. WILLIAM CHADERTON. 265 earl gave his consent in a very long epistle, 1 in which he preached him a homily on the holy estate of matrimony. On this Chaderton, who had recently been made president of Queens', took to himself a wife in the person of Catherine Revell. We must, however, confess to a certain amount of surprise that one holding the views which he did on the extreme risks of the married state, should ever have dared to venture on it ; for preaching a wedding sermon at Cambridge he was then a bachelor he declared " that the choice of a wife was full of hazard, not unlike as if one in a barrell full of serpents should grope for one fish ; if he scape harm of the snakes and light on a fish, he may be thought fortunate, yet let him not boast, for perhaps it may be but an Eele." 2 Chaderton was a strong advocate of conformity, and vigorously aided Whitgift in his struggle for its maintenance at Cambridge, and sat as an assessor with him on the trial of Cartwright. He also rendered material help in compiling new statutes for the Uni- versity. In this work, as in all other, he displayed an arbitrary temper and an intolerance of all views which differed from his own. To one objector he imperi- ously, and with much heat, commanded silence, threatening him with instant imprisonment if he con- tinued his speech. " Statim mittam te ad carceres ; statim, jam, jam I " were the angry words with which he interrupted the disputation. 8 In the affairs of his college he behaved after the same violent fashion, expelling the fellows who had offended him with a marvellous contempt of law and justice that on occasion excited the interference of the higher powers; for having about 1572 expelled 1 It is printed in Peck's "Desiderata Curiosa," vol. i. p. 81. Chaderton's letter was dated June 5, 1569. 2 " Briefe View," p. 82. 3 Hibbert Ware's " Manchester," vol. i. p. 101. 266 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. one Rockrey, a fellow, he was induced by Cecil to reinstate him. Four years before, he had also driven from his fellowship the bursar of the college. 1 In 1 579 he received the Bishopric of Chester, to which he was consecrated on November 8, and at the same time was appointed Warden of the Collegiate Church, Manchester, an office which he held " in commendam," as he also did the Rectory of Bangor. He had not occupied his see many months when he granted the patronage of the Archdeaconry of Chester for one turn to Leicester, 2 a very suspicious gift, and savouring of simony. A most repulsive work now awaited him, that of subduing to conformity the Romish recusants in his diocese, such being the task assigned to him by Government. Their number in England at this time has been given as 8512, of whom 2442 lived in the diocese of Chester. 3 To do this the more effectually he received an Ecclesiastical Commission, and took up his abode at Manchester, the stronghold and citadel of Romanism. To be an agent for carrying out a policy of persecution scarcely harmonised with his position as a chief pastor of souls, but Chaderton entered on it and performed it with a zest and an efficiency which earned for him the gratitude of his employers, but the bitter hatred and obloquy of every Romanist. The divine who could silence all argument by threats of imprisonment was now in his element, and in the searching after, apprehending, reporting, tor- turing, and hanging of recusants, the years of his episcopate were spent. To us, of course, it is sur- prising that a Christian bishop could lend himself, and that without a word of protest, to the perpetration of such outrages as were required of him. Yet it was 1 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, vols. ciii. I, and cxxix. 23. 2 " Athense Cantabrigienses," vol. ii. p. 482. 3 Ibid. WILLIAM CHADERTON. 267 so, and when Chaderton was ordered by the Privy Council to flog a young Roman Catholic girl who had professed to speak by the Spirit, he at once executed the barbarous order. This incident of his episcopate can be matched by another. A Romanist named Finch, whom the bishop in his letter to Walsingham described as " a very seditious recusant," had been forced to attend the Protestant service in the Collegiate Church at Man- chester. The act, to him one of impiety, so burdened his conscience that the next day he threw himself into the river, exclaiming, " Yesterday I damned my soul, and to-day I will destroy my body." He was with great difficulty saved ; but Bishop Chaderton, so far from feeling compassion or compunction, only saw in the desperate deed a call for greater severity 1 against the " sayde Finche " in particular and the Romanists in general. He thus wrote, on November 18, 1583, and on the 1 7th of the following January he obtained a commis- sion which in February held its sittings, one at Wigan and another at Prescot, for the trial of recusants, when thirty-one men and women promised conformity, fifteen were bound to appear when called upon, and thirteen, of whom five were priests, were sent to gaol. Apart from his work of persecution, he was a respect- able bishop enough, and anxious for the spread of the gospel in his diocese. He also evinced sympathy with his clergy in their pecuniary troubles, especially in their taxation for lance-money, and wrote several letters to Walsingham pleading their cause. In one of these he gives a sad account of his diocese. Out of its 248 parishes 133, and these the best, were appropriated rectories. The " best sorte " of the clergy, that is the better educated, were chiefly non-resident ; so that the churches were served, when served at all, by "no other Incumbents then verey 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. clxiii. 84. 268 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. beggerlie Vicars and Curates." Good preachers were most sorely needed, but there were no means for their maintenance, and he could do nothing, for when all necessary payments had been deducted from his income, there remained a balance but of .73 for household expenses. 1 In 1595 he was translated to Lincoln. In his new diocese he had more to do with Puritan noncon- formists than with Romish recusants, but though in many points he agreed with them, he insisted on his clergy using the vestments prescribed and on con- formity in all other matters, even though he admitted they were not essential. In a letter 2 to Viscount Cranborne, formerly Sir Robert Cecil, dated Decem- ber 12, 1604, ne mentions his having summoned before him on that day " thirty nonconfonning ministers" of his diocese who had objected to the clerical dress, to the use of the cross in baptism, and to subscription. He had expostulated with them but in vain, and, to judge from a subsequent letter, they seem to have been deprived soon afterwards. With those of them who were not ministers, by which he means incumbents, he stood on less ceremony, as appears from his closing words, "As for the Curates, about eight in number are suspended." Yet it seems that he would have been very thankful if some means could have been devised to retain their services. Thus he wrote again to Cranborne from Buckden, April 12, 1605. " But it is a greater greife to us all (if there were any other remedie) to remove them from theire Lyvinges, by reason whereof theire wyves and Children, whoe have geven no cause of offence, nether yet are hable to shift for them selves, sholde be distressed, ffor my owne pte I will by the grace of 1 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cclii. 81, p. 60. June 19, 1595- 2 Cecil MSS., Hatfield. JOHN WATSON. 269 God use all y c best meanes I can devise by conference and brotherlie exhortacons w*h myldenes and dis- crecon to wynne them." l These were the words of a good Christian and a wise pastor, but, notwithstand- ing these charitable expressions, he was the object of the dislike of the Puritans, who never forgave the sermon he once preached at Paul's Cross in defence of conformity in non-essentials. Though King James at his accession commanded him to preach before him at Burghley House on Easter Sunday, 1603, he did nothing for him in the way of preferment. Bishop Chaderton died suddenly 2 at Southoe, near Buckden, on April n, 1608, and was buried next day in the chancel of the church. He died rich, but left his fortune to his only daughter, Joan, who had married Sir Richard Brooke, Knight, of Norton, Cheshire, from whom, however, she was separated. JOHN WATSON. 1521-1584. BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, 1580. BISHOP JOHN WATSON was born at Evesham, Wor- cestershire, and graduated B.A. at Oxford in 1540, and in 1541 he became Fellow of All Souls'. Bishop Bonner was his patron, and in 1558 appointed him to the Chancellorship of St. Paul's, a circumstance which goes far to show that at that time he must have been a decided Romanist. However, he conformed to Pro- testantism under Elizabeth with great promptitude, for in 1559 he received the Mastership of St. Cross Hospital, a prebend of Winchester, and the Arch- deaconry of Surrey. Yet he did not rush into extremes, 1 Cecil MSS., Hatfield, no, 74. 2 " Athense Cantabrigienses," vol. ii. p. 482. 2/0 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. as did some of his conforming brethren, and in the Convocation of 1563 he voted against the anti-ritual motion of the Puritans. 1 In 1570 he received a pre- bend of Lincoln and the Deanery of Winchester, and in 1575 took his M.D. degree at Oxford, adding another to the roll of physician-prelates. He was consecrated Bishop of Winchester on Sep- tember 1 8, 1580. The revenues of the see were so much impaired, that he received five years' grace in which to pay his firstfruits, but as he lived little more than three, the queen lost by the arrangement. The chief feature of diocesan government in those days was the persecution of recusants and noncon- formists, and Bishop Watson has been accused of remissness in enforcing the laws against them, especially against the Romanists, " so that Papistry got much ground in those parts of Hampshire." 2 His successor at St. Cross, Dr. Bennet, afterwards Bishop of Hereford, wrote immediately after his death in a similar strain, commenting on his " too much lenity towards the Papists," 3 yet he seems to have been zealous enough in the apprehension of recusants and the seizure of prohibited books, 4 though he stopped at an Ecclesiastical Commission, never availing himself of its tremendous powers. In his treatment of the women in his diocese who refused to " come to Churche and heare y e Sermons," though their husbands did both, he showed a tenderness in marked contrast with the behaviour of his predecessor, Cooper, and instead of hounding on the Government to imprisonment, he waited for in- structions, and seems to have made matters as easy for them as he could, for he " thought yt something strainge that they " should " be punished for theyre 1 Strype's "Annals," I. vol. i. pp. 503-505. 2 Strype's " Life of Archbishop Whitgift," vol. i. p. 261. 3 Ibid., p. 261. 4 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, vols. cxliv. 31 ; cxlvii. 74. WILLIAM OVERTON. 2/1 wyves fawltes." 1 Bishop Watson escaped the lash of Marprelate, from which we infer that he was no persecutor of the Puritans. All writers agree as to his kindness and charity. He died at Wolseley Palace on January 23, 1584. WILLIAM OVERTON. 1526-1609. BISHOP OF LlCHFIELD AND COVENTRY, 1580. BISHOP OVERTON was born in London, and was entered at Magdalen College, Oxford, as a demy in 1539, but did not take his degree of B.A. till 1551, when he also became a fellow. Cecil was his patron from his student days till he gained the mitre, and obtained for him an exhibition from the revenues of the suppressed monastery of Glastonbury. Prefer- ments were bestowed on him before he was qualified to hold them ; and in 1559, though not in orders, he was made a canon of Winchester. In 1560, January 25, being then thirty-three, he was ordained deacon, and afterwards priest, by Bishop Grindal. In the next ten years he received the rectories of Nursling, Exton, Cotton, Buriton, and Rotherfield, situated in four different counties, with canonries at Salisbury and Chichester, and the treasurership of the latter cathedral. That he was not devoid of merit ought to be inferred from Grindal's recommendation of him, in 1561, for the Provostship of Eton, and from his being chosen to dispute on theology at the queen's visit to 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cxliv. 36. Date, November 22, 1580. 2/2 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. the University of Oxford in 1566, facts which should be borne in mind when we have to consider the accusations of ignorance which were brought against him. His preferments, however, were more to be ascribed to his eager pursuit of them than to any substantial qualifications. In 1579, the Archdeaconry of Lewes being vacant, he rode from Chichester to London to beg it from the queen, in whose gift it then was. Her Majesty received him very graciously, but she received another applicant yet more graciously, though his suit was second in point of time, and gave him the preferment. That applicant was Overton's brother- prebendary, who had also ridden from Chichester that same morning and for the same purpose. His name was Drant, and between him and Overton there existed a bitter feud. Overton, failing in his applica- tion for the archdeaconry, made suit for the bishopric ; and on that being given to the dean, Curteis, he asked for the deanery, in which suit he was also unsuccess- ful. From Elizabeth to the wife of a prebendary of Chichester is a great descent ; but Overton in his quest for promotion could aim low as well as high, as the following quotation from a letter he wrote to Mrs. Becon evidences : " Mrs. Beacon : If ever it be my gode happ either by advauncement of living, or otherwise to do him [Dr. Becon] goode or you or any of yours, I wil pforme it to y e through. And if it so fal out that by his mediation I be hereafter p'ferred to some goode Bishopricke wheresoever it be, though p'adventure farther distant hence than you wold, I pray you to let me be a suetor to him and to you that we may be togither and live togither, he and I and you and my wife. That we may have mutual joy and comfort one in an other like dear brethren and sisters : And I promise unto you before the eternal God I have not, nor shal have, any thing to dear for him and you WILLIAM OVERTON. 2/3 wether in Spiritualties or Temporalties to do you good and yours." l This promise he afterwards, as Dr. Becon declared, did " by solempne othe upon a booke voluntarilie ratifie." The Dr. Becon here mentioned had con- siderable influence with the Earl of Leicester, which he so used in behalf of Overton that the earl pro- posed to him the Bishopric of Lichfield and Coventry. He accepted it, and was consecrated on September 1 8, 1580, five months after the date of his letter to Mrs. Becon. He also received to hold with his bishopric the rectories of Stoke-upon-Trent and Hanbury, both in Staffordshire. He kept his promise to Mrs. Becon, at least to a degree, by making her husband Chancellor and Pre- bendary of Lichfield ; but a quarrel afterwards arose, into the merits of which it is needless to enter, and he deprived him of his chancellorship. In the course of the quarrel the bishop, acting on his wife's whispered hints, used language of poor Mrs. Becon in public that was only applicable to the most infamous of her sex. Whereupon Dr. Becon called his diocesan " a beast " to his face. Bishop Overton's conduct to the poor lady, to whom he virtually owed his bishopric, was, by her husband's account, not only ungrateful, but barbarous. This is his statement of her visit to the bishop, to intercede with him for her deprived husband "My poore wyffe, after she had paynfullie and chargeablye entertained his L. and all his in Christ- mas-tyme, when by occasion she had ridden 100 mile to see his L. in Staffordshire found that discourtesie and entertaynement, and so contumelious abuses offered us bothe in a strange countrey, that seinge her husbande dispossessed of house, office and money, and all for such unkynde and unthankfull persons, [that] beinge younge w*h chielde toke such an inwarde 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cxxxvii. 31. T 2/4 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. griefe, that she never joyed until she was delyvered of a man chielde before her tyme, hardlie escapinge her life. And sence she came to dwell at Lichfelde r w th her housholde, his L. nor his never once vouch- safed to bidd her to a morsell comynge a stranger in those partes. ffor myne oune parte, I left all to follow his L. In his want I supplied freelie his necessities to myne owne hinderaunce." Harington records among the virtues of Bishop Overton his hospitality to the poor, and his keeping his house in good repair ; but even if these were his merits, his ungrateful treatment of Mrs. Becon and her husband discounts them heavily. In other respects his episcopate was marked by strife, corrup- tion, and neglect. The diocese was a difficult one to manage, partly by reason of the supineness of his predecessor, and partly because it abounded with Romanists, who were not only numerous but audacious, as the following story shows : A Staffordshire clergyman, whom Overton de- scribed as being no " mere sayer of prayers," but one "endowed with good gifts, a diligent and zealous preacher of the word," was about to commence the service one Sunday morning, when in walked a certain Romanist lawyer, named Crompton, equipped with an " araunge " by his side, and a great " basting- dow " in his hand, who thus addressed the minister : "Sir Hu, come hither, I must first talk with you 'ere you begin." l His arguments were cogent, for seizing the man of "good gifts," he carried him into the church porch and gave him into the custody of a constable, by whom he was straightway taken to prison. The bishop brought the matter before the Privy Council, when lawyer Crompton justified his conduct on the ground that the clergyman was a noncon- formist, and as Overton would not do his duty he 1 Strype's " Annals," vol. iii. i. 34. WILLIAM OVERTON. 275 thought he had a right to do it for him. This Staffordshire ecclesiastic, it appeared, was in the matter of rubrics a law unto himself, and in his per- formance of the Liturgy had a usage of his own. The bishop's hatred of Romanists was intense, and once in warning the queen against them he spoke of the pope as the " Vice-devill." After less than two years' tenure of his see, he thus described his position in a letter to Burghley " Certes my hon r able good L. I am here in a verye pilouse Country (and if I maye speake yt w^iout offence), the verye sinke of the whole realme, bothe for corrupte religion and lyefe." l Nor were matters much better where most he should have obtained comfort and support. " I confesse," he wrote at the same time to Sir Francis Walsingham, " I have the stubbornest diocesse in all this lande, and a clergie most unwillinge to shew them selves readie and duti- full in any good service, and specyallie yf it touche their purse never so lytlie." 2 The clergy of his own cathedral were the most troublesome of all, for not only the dean but also all the prebendaries, in number nearly forty, claimed to be exempt from episcopal jurisdiction, and exercised one of their own, so that, as Bishop Overton declared, he was "utterly barred from the execution of his charge." Besides, all the gentry who had bought church lands, and they were numerous, claimed a like exemption. When he endeavoured to show them that as their bishop he had some authority over them, he soon discovered his mistake ; for though, as he said, it was " a countrye full of mutual quarrels," yet when it was against himself they laid aside their own disputes and made common cause against their diocesan. 3 It was a pitched battle. 1 Lansdowne MSS., xxxvi. 16. Dated May 20, 1582. 2 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cxlix. 37* Date, June II, 1581. 3 Lansdowne MSS., xxxvi. 14. 2/6 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. " If I should not represse them in the beginninge," were his words to Cecil, " they would over-krowe me for ever." Bishop Overton's negligence, to use no harsher word, in conferring holy orders has already been referred to as receiving the severe reprobation of Burghley, who informed the queen that he had " in one day made seventy ministers for money ; some tailors, some shoemakers, and other craftsmen," of whom he declared that the " greatest part " were " not worthy to keep horses." The accusation came with double force, for Burghley had been Overton's earliest friend and patron. On that occasion no one spoke a word in defence of the absent prelate, whose conduct, probably, did not admit of it. When shortly afterwards Whitgift expressed his opinion, that " almost all the evle bishops and denes " in England had been the nominees of Leicester, he must have included Overton among them, whose preferment to the See of Lichfield was entirely due to that nobleman's influence. In 1588 he was suspended by Archbishop Whitgift for leaving Convocation without permission. He died on April 9, 1609, and heavily in debt to the Crown, 1 though he had held a good bishopric and two valuable rectories for nearly thirty years. He had been twice married, his first wife being a daughter of Bishop Barlow. His extraordinary ignorance ex- posed him to the sarcasm of Marprelate, who couples him with his brother prelate Bullingham as " a brace of dunces," and would describe an extremely ignorant cleric as being " as unlerned as John of Glocester or William of Liechfield." ' 2 Yet he wrote and published some Latin poems and three sermons. 1 State Papers, James I., vol. xliv. 82, p. 505. ' "Ha 5 any Worke for Cooper?" ed. Petheram, p. 10. JOHN BULLINGHAM. 277 JOHN BULLINGHAM. 1532-1598. BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER, 1581. BISHOP JOHN BULLINGHAM was born in Gloucester- shire, and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, of which he became a probationer Fellow in 1550. Dis- gusted with the religious changes in the reign of Edward VI., he left England and resided at Rouen till the accession of Mary, when he returned and was made chaplain to Bishop Gardiner, receiving also from the Crown in 1554 the Rectory of Boxwell, Gloucestershire. 1 When Elizabeth became queen, he refused to take the oath of supremacy, and was deprived of all his preferments, 54 but conformed some years afterwards, and in 1565 was collated by Bishop Grindal to a prebend in St. Paul's. He became in due course largely beneficed : the Archdeaconry of Huntingdon, a prebend of Lincoln, a Canonry of Worcester, and the Rectory of Withing- ton, Gloucestershire, being conferred upon him, all of which, except the canonry, were given him by his namesake, and probably kinsman, Dr. Nicholas Bullingham, successively Bishop of Lincoln and Worcester. In 1578 it was contemplated to make him Bishop of Chester, 3 but he had to wait three years before he gained the mitre, which he finally received when he was consecrated to the Bishopric of Gloucester on September 3, 1581. The revenues 1 Chancery Patent Rolls, I Mary. Public Record Office. 2 Foxe's " Acts," ed. Townshend, vol. viii. 204, 205. 3 Calendar, Cecil MSS., Hatfield, pt. ii. p. 204 : Bishop N. Bullingham to Lord Burghley, September 20, 1578. 2/8 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. of that see being very small, the Bishopric of Bristol was granted him to hold " in commendam " with it. According to Marprelate, he was noted only for his remarkable ignorance and childishness, especially in the pulpit. He gives us some specimens, which, except for their being confirmed by Archbishop Parker and others, we should regard as little better than libels. By them Dr. Bullingham seems to have held the opinion that the art of effective preaching consisted in the frequent repetition of the text, to- gether with such observations by way of comment as might occur at the moment. In fact, he was a preacher of the very worst type, who without learning, genius, or even enthusiasm, trusted to the inspiration of the moment, and believed that to be familiar was to be forcible, and that he was being eminently practical when he was only rambling and tedious. Archbishop Parker has recorded his experience of his pulpit powers in a letter to Cecil. The verdict was crushing. " Sir, this other day Dr. Bullingham preached in my chapel in my hearing, whom I take to be an honest, true-meaning man ; but because I did credit others much commending him, I once preferred before her Majesty, but I intend hereafter not to do so again. In him I perceive neither pronunciationem aulicam nor ingenium aulicum, not meet for the court, and therefore I appointed Dr. Young of Cambridge to supply his room and warned he is." 1 Yet ten years afterwards the divine who was not thought fit to stand up in the pulpit of the royal chapel was considered good enough to occupy the episcopal throne, and he was made Bishop of Gloucester. Bishop Aylmer, though a personal friend of Bullingham, protested against the appoint- ment in a letter to the Earl of Sussex, but in vain. " There is some speech," he wrote after dwelling on 1 " Parker Correspondence," p. 378. February 2, 1570-1. JOHN BULLINGHAM. 279 the importance of having fit ministers in the Church, " of twoo, viz. Bullen and Bullenghm to be placed in two Bishoprickes. The men I love, and wish well unto. But my care for Code's glorie and her Ma ties quyetude compelleth me (to the discharge of my conscience) to saye as I think of them that they be everie waye verie unfitt parsons to discharge such places, as the further thei are of from the vew of her Ma tie and yo r h.h. [the Privy Council] soe much the more dangerous it is to have unskylfull Officers in theis dangerous daies." 1 The ignorance of Bishop Bullingham received a large share of Marprelate's abuse, but his statements in support of it are so wildly improbable that they must be regarded as little more than the inventions of malice. For though Bullingham may not have been endowed with the gifts and learning which the queen's fastidious taste required in a preacher, yet it is simply impossible that he could ever have declared, as Marprelate would have us believe, that the prophecy of Isaiah was taken out of the Prayer Book. His oratory may not have been adapted to the royal chapel, but it was considered sufficient for the pulpit at Paul's Cross, and he was duly appointed to preach there. The fact, however, was that the Puritans hated him intensely, for they could not forgive his conversion to the Church of England, and railed at him, by their mouthpiece Marprelate, as "Turncoat," and as "That old Steale-counter 2 masse priest, John o' Glossester." But they carried their hatred so far, that the bishop was compelled to have recourse to the law, and four- teen of the Puritans of Gloucester were proceeded against for libelling him. 3 1 Cotton MSS., Vespasian, c, xiv. 530. 2 A Counter was a small piece of base money used for reckoning, and a steal-counter denotes one of the pettiest of thieves. 3 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cclxxiii. 36. 280 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. In 1589 he was deprived of his " commendam " of the See of Bristol, partly because he owed the queen money, which he was unable to pay, and still more so, probably, because she wanted to make her favourite, Fletcher, Dean of Peterborough, to whom she gave it, a bishop. As to the first of these reasons Bishop Bullingham, on taking possession of his see, found one William Sprint filling the office of collector of its revenues, and was forced by the Privy Council, but against his own wish, to continue him in the office. The man turned out a rogue, for instead of paying the first- fruits, tenths, and subsidies into the royal exchequer, he appropriated them to his own use, leaving his master responsible for the whole amount. The bishop, deprived of Bristol, was reduced to starvation, and in amends received the Rectory of Kilmington ; but the queen was still unpaid, and her patience being ex- hausted she issued legal process against him, as she had done to his predecessor Cheyney, and an execu- tion was levied on his goods. He made a pathetic appeal to Burghley imploring " the discharge of proces and seisure," l but his death a few months afterwards, on May 20, 1598, freed him from all his earthly troubles. THOMAS GODWIN. 1517-1590. BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS, 1584. THOMAS GODWIN, Bishop of Bath and Wells, father of Bishop Francis Godwin, was born at Oakingham, Berkshire, of humble parentage, and received his 1 Lansdowne MSS., 86 (28). Date, February I, 1597-8. THOMAS GODWIN. 28 1 early education at the grammar school of that place. In his youth he was so fortunate as to find a patron in Dr. Layton, Dean of York, who took him into his house, superintended his education, and finally sent him to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1543, and became fellow two years after- wards. Within a year from taking his degree he lost his patron by death, and henceforth had to depend on his own exertions for a livelihood. His first thoughts inclined him to the medical profession, for which he qualified himself by taking his bachelor's degree in that faculty in 1545. After a few years' trial of doctoring, he became a teacher of youth, and was appointed to the mastership of Brackley Grammar School in 1550 ; but being too strict and conscientious a Protestant to subscribe Roman articles at the accession of Mary, he resigned both fellowship and school. He remained in England, however, during that reign, and returned to the practice of physic for a maintenance. Soon after the accession of Elizabeth he took upon him the cure of souls instead of bodies, and about 1560 was ordained deacon by Bishop Nicholas Bullingham, who made him his chaplain, collated him to a prebend of Lincoln, and introduced him to the queen. Her Majesty commanded him to preach before her, and was so gratified with his discourse, that she made him Lent preacher. Five years after his ordination he became Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and in 1567 Dean of Canterbury, in which year Archbishop Parker also recognised his capacity by employing him to visit the diocese of Norwich. Soon after his installation at Canterbury a charge was preferred against him, together with the Chapter, of having sold a large quantity of the cathedral plate and pocketed the proceeds. On investigation, 282 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. however, it appeared that the whole of the sum realised by the sale was given to the use of the cathedral, and that the real cause of the accusation was the dean's honesty, which disappointed the hankerers after Church property. 1 In 1575 Bishop Cooper collated him to another prebend of Lincoln, and in the following year he became an Ecclesiastical Commissioner. On Sep- tember 13, 1584, he was consecrated to the Bishopric of Bath and Wells, which had been vacant for three years, and, as we learn from Harington, who mentions the fact as something quite extraordinary, " he came to the place unreprovably without Simonie." 2 Yet if we may judge by the sequel, he seems to have been made a bishop for no other purpose than that of furthering the schemes of the Church robbers, of whom, at that time, Raleigh was the worst. For diocesan rule or Church work Bishop Godwin, at the time of his consecration, was entirely incom- petent, being a broken-down invalid, but he was quite competent to sign away leases of episcopal manors, which he was presently required to do. The valuable manor of Banwell was coveted by Raleigh, who, but in vain, tried to induce the bishop to give him a lease of it. Raleigh's appetite for land was insatiable. The queen had, about this time, given him twelve thousand acres in Ireland, part of the forfeited estates of the Earl of Desmond, but he gaped for more, and Banwell he must have, if not by the fair means of persuasion by the foul ones of royal menaces. Unfortunately, Bishop Godwin gave his adversary an opportunity of working on the queen's mind, for though at this time he was nearly a septuagenarian, he married a widow lady from London, of the mature age of forty. This offence, if properly worked, was 1 " Parker Correspondence," pp. 303, 304. 2 "Briefe View," p. in. THOMAS GODWIN. 283 a " Star-Chamber matter," and Raleigh at once hastened to the queen. When Elizabeth was a haggard old woman of sixty he would write of her, and doubtless speak of her and to her also as "a nymph," "a goddess," and "an angel," who "rode like Alexander," " hunted like Diana," " walked like Venus," and "played like Orpheus." 1 How could she deny the suit of one who spoke and thought of her thus, when that suit was but at the expense of an old prelate, who had committed the heinous offence, in her eyes a crime, of a second marriage ? At any rate, she did not, and her affection for Raleigh, and her indignation at Bishop Godwin's conduct, caused her to command him instantly to surrender a lease of the manor of Banwell for a hundred years. The bishop received the royal letter with much apparent surprise, and at first refused to obey it, but sundry "sharp messages" from her Majesty brought him to a different way of thinking. Of one such message Harington, the queen's godson and the bishop's friend, was the bearer, and it was at that interview, probably, that the bishop, alarmed by the queen's threats, and horrified at the act of sacrilege which she was forcing upon him, shed tears, protest- ing that he had married his second wife only as his housekeeper. 2 In the end the matter was com- promised by his making over to the queen a lease of the manor of Wivelscombe for ninety-nine years, retaining Banwell, though that was afterwards leased out too. He had honesty enough to be ashamed of the transaction, which, as his son tells us, occasioned him lifelong remorse. 3 His private conduct was highly commendable, for, despite his gout, he was both hospitable and agree- able, which, as we are told, made him " very well 1 C. Whitehead's " Life of Raleigh," p. 77. 2 "Briefe View." 3 Bishop Godwin's "De Prsesulibus." 284 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. esteemed " and " beloved of all men." He ruled his diocese, v/here he did so at all, by deputy, and if he did no good he did no harm, for his "government was mild and not violent." He died on November 19, 1590, at his native place in Berkshire, and was buried there in the chancel of the church. WILLIAM WICKHAM. 1539-1595- BISHOP OF LINCOLN, 1584; WINCHESTER, 1595. BISHOP WICKHAM was of the same family as his celebrated namesake, also Bishop of Winchester, who built Windsor Castle, and founded New College, Oxford. He was born at Enfield, Middlesex, and educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, which he entered in 1556, and where, having become Fellow in 1559, he took his B.A. in 1561. Having been ordained about 1565, he was elected Fellow of Eton in 1568, and Vice-provost about 1570. He used, we are told, to teach the school in the absence of the head-master ; and Harington, then a boy at Eton, testifies to his fatherly care of his pupils, and the mildness and good-nature of his disposition. 1 Within ten years of his appointment to the Vice- provostship he received canonries at Westminster, Windsor, Lincoln, and Lichfield, the Archdeaconry of Surrey, and in 1577 the Deanery of Lincoln. In addition to these rich prizes he had two benefices, one in Sussex and the other in Kent, and appears to have held all his preferments together. At last he became a bishop, and was consecrated to the See of Lincoln on December 6, 1584. 1 " Briefe View," p. 65. WILLIAM WICKHAM. 285 His episcopate there was marked but by one event of any interest, and that happened in another diocese, for he preached the sermon at the interment of Mary, Queen of Scots, in Peterborough Cathedral, August i, 1587. The sermon exposed him to the lash of Marprelate as showing sympathy with " popery." 1 In it, indeed, he declared that she had died an obstinate papist, yet his language implied a belief that salvation was possible even to a Romanist, 2 a tenet abhorrent to the Puritans. In 1594 he was nominated to succeed Bishop Cooper in the See of Winchester, but he was required to make such extensive alienations of its property, notably in the favour of Sir Francis Carew, that he could not bring himself to compliance. At last he yielded, and on Christmas eve Bishop Cooper had died on April 29 he wrote from his " lodging at Puddle Wharfe " to Sir Robert Cecil to say that he would give the required lease in favour of Carew, and that he was "ready to submitt himself." 3 There seems, however, to have been still a hitch in the business, for the royal assent to his election was not given till February 10, 1595, and after that there was further delay, for the queen refused to give him the restitution of his temporalities " till," as Bishop Wickham complainingly wrote, " he had further sub- mitted himself." 4 In this letter to Burghley he mentioned "the extraordinary and unlawful leases of lands then in contemplation," and implored his influence to stay them. About this very time, in the last sermon he ever preached before the queen, he gave her Majesty a solemn admonition on the same subject, saying that if the bishoprics were to decrease in value in the 1 "Ha' any Worke for Cooper ? " 2 An account of the sermon is in MSS., Ashmolean, 836, Article 86. s Cecil MSS., Hatfield, 29, 49, original. Date of letter, December 24, 1594. 4 Ibid. March I, 1594-5. 286 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. next thirty years as they had done in the previous thirty, there would scarcely remain a cathedral in England not in ruins. 1 The queen listened to thediscourse very "graciously," but paid no other attention to it. Bishop Wickham, however, received his temporalities, and within a fortnight of the date of his letter to Burghley ; but he died on June 12, 1595, before he had given effect to the required spoliations, or received any benefit by his compliances, save in name. He died at his palace in Southwark, and was buried in St. Mary, Overies. He married a daughter of Bishop Barlow, and one of his descendants was Dean of York, and another, William Wickham, was Under- secretary of State in the reign of George III. Fuller describes him as one who was " equal to any of his order in piety and painfulnesse, superior to all in patience." RICHARD HOWLAND. 1540-1600. BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH, 1585. BISHOP HOWLAND, the son of a London citizen, was born at Newport Pond, Essex, and matriculated as a member of Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1558, but migrating to St. John's, he graduated B.A. in 1561, and was elected a Fellow of Peterhouse in 1562. He received the Rectory of Stathern, Leicestershire, in 1569, and became Master of Magdalene College in 1576, and of St. John's in 1577. His early sympathies were with the Puritans ; he attended Cartwright's lectures, and was one of the 1 " Briefe View," p. 66. RICHARD ROWLAND. 287 fifteen who petitioned Cecil in his behalf, but their subversive violence changed his opinions of them, and a sermon preached in the University pulpit by one Milvayn, a Fellow of Christ's College, denouncing the Anglican ordinations as unscriptural, brought him forward in their defence. In the afternoon he delivered an admirable reply to the sermon that had been preached in the morning. His ability and promptitude on that occasion paved the way for his preferment, for the Vice-chancellor sent him to London to report the proceeding to Cecil, and the interview procured him his friendship and subsequent patronage. In 1583 Cecil named him to the queen as a fit person for the Deanery of Peterborough, and her Majesty promised that he should have it ; but there is many a slip between the cup and the lip, and the dean-expectant realised the truth of the adage. For Fletcher, the handsome chaplain, asked for it. " No, I have promised to Rowland ; it is his," was the royal reply. To a man of honour such an answer would have sufficed to stop any further solicitation, but Fletcher was not over-burdened with that quality, and the queen had as little of it as might be, so he pressed his suit and received the deanery. Two years afterwards, however, Rowland was amply compensated for his disappointment by the bishopric, to which he was consecrated on February 7, 1585, and in consequence of the smallness of the income of the See of Peterborough he was given the valuable Rectory of Sibson, Leicestershire, to hold "in commendam." Yet even with that he was always poor, and after ten years' occupancy of his bishopric he owed the queen 300, and wrote to Burghley to be permitted to pay it in three annual instalments. 1 He retained his Mastership of St. John's for a year, for the Fellows 1 Lansdowne MSS. Date, November 3, 1595. 288 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. were in a very disorderly state, and opposed the election of Whitaker, Regius Professor of Divinity, whom Burghley and Whitgift wished to be appointed master, and it was hoped that Rowland would be able to persuade them to do so, a hope which was fulfilled. He was a thorough Whitgiftian, as he had reason to be, for the archbishop had more than once recommended him for a bishopric, notably that of Bath and Wells, and had wished him to be his successor in the Mastership of Trinity. Of his governance of his diocese but little is known, and that little is not very favourable to him. Martin Marprelate, in his " Ha' any Worke for the Cooper? " lashed him by a savage and indecorous innuendo, which leads us to suppose that the bishop was no friend to the Puritans, who were a numerous and powerful party in his diocese. His sequestration of Robert Cawdry, Rector of Luffenham, in execution of the sentence of the Court of High Commission in 1 590, brought him into collision with that sect, though it was an official act which he was obliged to execute. His clergy were exceedingly poor, so much so that he certified to their total inability to contribute the assessment for light horse ; l and he appears to have been an easy diocesan, allowing them to do as they liked, the churches to fall into decay, and divine service to be performed anyhow or not at all. Though Howland neglected his diocese, he kept a sharp eye on the vacancies in the episcopal bench. They were numerous, and comprised some of the choicest, pecuniarily, of the bishoprics. York, London, Winchester, Durham, Worcester, Salisbury, Hereford, Bath and Wells, became vacant, some more than once, but none were offered to him. Having waited ten years in vain, he began to feel that it was no use waiting any longer, and that as promotion did not seek him, he must seek promotion. 1 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. clxxxviii. 4, p. 318. RICHARD ROWLAND. 289 By the death of Piers, September 18, 1594, the Archbishopric of York became void, and on the 2Oth of the following October Rowland wrote to Lord Burghley, requesting his " honorable favoure " that he might obtain it. His letter of application is too characteristic of the man and of the times to be entirely omitted. Having duly and humbly dis- qualified himself, he thus proceeded to give his reasons for hoping to receive the great preferment he had asked for. 1 " I confesse, my good L : that I have byn greatlie advancsed by this place, w c h no we I have, for the w c h y* I have not byn soe thankefull as I ought, I beseech your ho : to impute it not to wante of will but of abilitie ; w c h wante if your L : shall supplie, as nowe by your worde onlie you may doe in greate measure, I shall ever be soe bounde, as that, if I be not fownde both in worde and deede thankefull, I shall iustelie incurre the hatefull name of an unthankefull man. All men (my good L :) y 1 knowe me and Peter- boroughe, doe knowe your honoure to have byn my onlie Patrone and p r ferrer, by whose onlie favoure I am that I am ; in regarde of w c h favoure, I am also fullie assured, it hath pleased y 1 honorable p r son 2 and State thus to recomende me not for any my deserte, who am scarse knowen (de facie) unto his honoure." Burghley replied, and the gist of his answer was that the bishop must continue to do what he had been doing for so long, and that was to "expect." This answer was so little what had been hoped for. and so every way hard of digestion, that Howland wrote again as follows. " Your L dp : saithe, I must expect : w c h for y t yo r L dp : will have it soe, I will, never myndinge to seeke 1 Lansdowne MSS., Ixxvi. 87. Date, October 20 [1594]. 2 The Lord President of the North and the Council, who, as the Bishop informed the Treasurer, had recommended him. But in this he was mistaken. U 2QO LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. any further meanes, but will expect y e good pleasure of God by your L dp ; onelie meanes, as I have done. But alas, my good L. what can I expect, and w th what hope and comfort, who have expected these teenn yeres, beinge nowe the ninthe Bishoppe in Standinge, in w c h tyme xix BB ps have byn and are to be p r ferred, and yet I have reaped nothinge but disgrace and beggerie ; except your L dp : in an honorable favoure doe regarde me in this multiplicitie of Removes, for I have soe carried my selfe above my power (I confesse) and yet in an honest care to the Countenance of this place w c h I received from yo r ho : and in the service of my gratiouse Sov r aigne ; of your honoure ; and my countrie ; to the reliefe of many poore men (not to be repented of) y 1 1 cannot possiblie carrie my charge in such mann r as I have donn ; but shalbe compelled to lett fall my sale, and w th drawe my selfe under the hatches, w ch would be my dis- creditt. And therefore (good my LA) remeber me nowe, for yo r L clp . in wisdome knoweth what a great discomfort it wilbe unto me to be remebred of oth rs and to be reiected by my honorable good L. and onlie Patrone ; much more honorable and easie will it be also unto yo r L dp ; and comfortable unto me, y t this my poore estate may not appeare unto men. Wherfor I beseech yo u to stande my good L. nowe, and I shall for ev r acknowledge yo r great favoures ; And shall not cease to pray unto the L : of heaven to blesse your L dp ; and yours w l h longe lyfe and great honoure ; w c h is my daylie prayer and shalbe during lyfe : Thus recommendinge my poore State to your ho : consideracbn : I rest " Yo r Ho in all dutie at Comandement" "RICH PETRIBURGH. " Burgh, 10. Novebris." ' When Bishop Rowland wrote this epistle, or rather 1 Lansdowne MSS., Ixxvi. 88. Endorsed 1594. HARBERT WESTPHALING. 291 dictated it, for except the last line and the signature it is not autograph, it was with mingled feelings of chagrin and hope, for the tidings had reached him that York had been given to Hutton, Bishop of Durham, and was it not possible, he must have asked himself, that his "onelie patrone" might give him that rich ecclesiastical prize ? But no such offer was ever made him, though many rich bishoprics, as London, Winchester, Worcester, and Ely, were rilled in the next few years, for which he probably con- tinued to " expect " till his death, for " Hope springs eternal in the human breast." He died at Castor, Northamptonshire, on June 23, 1600, and was buried in his cathedral. Bishop Howland was never married, but Elizabeth Howland, the descendant of his youngest brother, Sir Giles Howland of Streatham, married the son and heir of Lord Russell, executed in the reign of Charles II. Her husband, on his marriage, was created a peer by the title of Baron Howland of Streatham. HARBERT WESTPHALING. I534 1 -i6o2. BISHOP OF HEREFORD, 1586. BISHOP WESTPHALING was the son of one Harber- ton, a native of Westphalia, and was born in London. He was elected a student of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1549, and, having graduated about 1552, became reader of the sentences, or lecturer, at that college in 1561, and canon of the cathedral in 1562. Sub- sequently he became Rector of Brightwell, Berks, and Canon of Windsor and Treasurer of St. Paul's. 1 His portrait, which has been engraved, bears the inscription, " 1601, /Etatis sure 67." 2Q2 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. He was a sound and sober Churchman, whose influence was always on the side of order and discipline; but though he never scrupled to wear the vestments prescribed by authority, he was tolerant towards those who did, even joining with other divines in recommending the eminent Puritan, Dr. Sampson, to be Dean of Christ Church. He was a strong, though not bitter, opponent of the Romanists. When canon of Christ Church he was placed by the queen on a commission for the destruction of all "albs, missals, copes, vestments, crosses, and such like monuments of superstition " as were found in the cathedral ; but when he was employed by Arch- bishop Grindal on a metropolitical Visitation of the diocese of Gloucester in 1576, he ordered the cope to be worn at the celebration of the Communion in pursuance of the royal Injunctions. At the same time, however, he gratified the " precisians " by the concession of a sermon whenever the Lord's Supper was administered, a matter which they considered to be essential. His deep acquaintance with the points at issue between Romanists and Protestants caused Arch- bishop Whitgift to place his name on the list of divines for holding conference with the former, especially on the authority and sufficiency of Scripture and the nature of a true Church. Indeed, as to the supremacy of the Bible in religion he was a Protestant to the core, and preached and published a sermon, in which he ascribed all real reformation, both of life and doctrine, to a knowledge of the Word of God. He was a notable preacher as well as a controvertist. Two anecdotes are related of him in that capacity- one showing his presence of mind very remarkably, for a panic occurring among the congregation by some melted snow falling with a tremendous noise on the roof of the cathedral, he knelt down in the pulpit and commended them and himself in prayer HARBERT WESTPHALING. 293 to God. The grave and pious act calmed the people ; they returned, and he finished his discourse. Even the queen could not disturb him, and once when preaching before her, and at greater length than she liked, and though she had sent two messages to him commanding him to cut short his sermon, he turned a deaf ear to them and finished all he had to say. The discourse had been committed to memory, and perhaps on that account was incapable of abridgment at a moment's notice. 1 He was a grave divine, so much so, indeed, that it is recorded of him that he was never known to smile, and it was, perhaps, in allusion to this feature of his character that Archbishop Parker, when recommending him in 1570 for the Bishopric of Oxford, wrote of him as the " wise, sober man." 2 He was also conspicuous for his incorruptible integrity, and neither received nor gave bribes, and when promotion reached him, it did so quite unsought. Primates so different as Parker, Grindal, and Whitgift all countenanced him, and in 1584 Whitgift named him to the queen for the Deanery of Windsor. This appointment he did not receive, possibly she did not wish to have so close to her person a divine who " never smiled," and was so every way rigid, but in 1585 he was elected 3 to the Bishopric of Hereford, and was consecrated on January 30, 1586. His diocese abounded with turbulent Romanists, concerning whom, and the best mode of repressing them, he presented a paper to the Privy Council 4 shortly after his consecration. His episcopal labours were mainly comprised in the efforts he made to reclaim his " popish " flock, but they were almost devoid of results, as his successor testified. In the 1 "Briefe View," pp. 134-137. 2 " Parker Correspondence," p. 360. 3 Congt cTelire, November 23, 1585 ; confirmed January 29, 1586. 4 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cxcv. 45, p. 370. Date, 1586. 294 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. distribution of his patronage, which probably included his conferring holy orders, he was quite inaccessible to external influence, and, as we are told, " neither respected Letters nor commendations of Lords nor Knights, nor wife nor friends in preferments of any man, but only their sufficiency and good conversation, so that to sue for a benefice unto him was rather to miss than to attain it." This principle of diocesan administration was, doubtless, one deserving of high praise, but it must none the less have proved extremely convenient, and saved the bishop a world of trouble from applicants for preferment. In another respect he is entitled to great commendation, for all he gained from the Church he spent on it, which, it must be added, his possession of private means enabled him to do. He died at his residence of Whitburne, Hereford- shire, March I, 1602, and was buried in the cathedral under a monumental effigy. Bishop Westphaling was married and had a family, whose descendants were long connected with the county of Hereford. Their mansion was at Rudhall near Ross, and the last of them, Mary Westphaling, who had married Thomas Brereton, Esq., who took the name of West- phaling, died in 1830 without issue, when the con- tents of the family mansion, including the portraits, were sold by auction. 1 Bishop Westphaling was extremely charitable in his lifetime, and also bequeathed an estate in Here- fordshire to Jesus College, Oxford, for two Fellows and two scholars. 1 Duncomb's " Hereford," vol. i. p. 354. HUGH BELLOT. 295 HUGH BELLOT. 1542-1596. BISHOP OF BANGOR, 1586; CHESTER, 1595. BISHOP BELLOT was born in Cheshire, and was the second son of Thomas Bellot, of Great Moreton, in that county. He graduated B.A. of Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1564, and was elected a Fellow of Jesus College in 1564. His benefices comprised Tydd St. Mary, Doddington, Caerwys, Gresford, the Deanery of Bangor, the Bishopric of Bangor, to which he was consecrated January 30, 1586, and that of Chester, to which he was translated in 1595. One of his clergy, a Dr. Prytherge, who had been presented by the queen to the Rectory of Llan- beylan, in Anglesea, accused Bellot of selling the benefices in his gift, 1 but as the bishop had refused him institution, probably not without reason, he may be regarded as prejudiced. Bishop Bellot was a member of the Council of Wales, and assisted Morgan in his translation of the Welsh Bible. Tra- dition also records that he was such a misogynist that he would never admit a female into his family. He died June 13, 1596. 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. ccxix. 89. Anno 1588. 296 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. THOMAS BICKLEY. 1518-1596. BISHOP OF CHICHESTER, 1586. BISHOP BlCKLEY was born at Stow, Buckingham- shire, and was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, first as a chorister at the school, and then as a demy. Having graduated B.A. in 1540, he was elected a Fellow in 1541, and afterwards of New College. 1 He was also made chaplain to Edward VI. His theological opinions were without doubt strongly opposed to Romanism, but the story repeated by many authorities 2 of his trampling on the wafer which he had removed from the pix on the altar sounds too atrocious for any Protestant divine to have perpetrated, especially one like Bickley. The anecdote has been discredited by later writers. 3 At the accession of Mary he was deprived of his fellowship, and, though with great difficulty, made his escape to France. Returning to England at her death, he sided with the opponents of Puritan innova- tions, and in the Convocation of 1563, voted against the six anti-ritual articles introduced by that faction, and in the following year signed a paper in favour of the lawfulness of vestments and habits. Archbishop Parker made him his chaplain, and obtained for him much valuable preferment, including a prebend of Lichfield and the Archdeaconry of 1 " Memorials of Merton College," by Hon. G. C. Brodrick. 2 Fuller's " Worthies," ed. J. P. Nicholls, i. p. 138 ; ! Church History," ed. J. S. Brewer, iv. p. 152 ; Humphrey's Bishop Jewel ; " Strype's " Memorials," iii. 182. 3 " National Dictionary of Biography," art. Bickley. THOMAS BICKLEY. 297 Stafford. At the schism caused by the publication of the Advertisements, when many churches in London were left unserved through the wearing of the surplice being insisted upon, the archbishop sent Bickley to officiate in one such church, and he was listened to quietly 1 by the parishioners, though all clergymen who wore the obnoxious vestment were regarded as " wolves." He was a notable preacher, and had frequently occupied the pulpit, not only in the queen's chapel, but at Paul's Cross, and this, together with his former zeal against Romanism, might have disposed the congregation to regard him with favour. When the connivance of Parkhurst, Bishop of Nor- wich, at the nonconformists, necessitated a Visitation of his diocese in 1567, Bickley was appointed one of the commissioners, and in 1569 became Warden of Merton College, Oxford, taking the oath by proxy. He presided over it for seventeen years, and at the outbreak of gaol fever in the city in 1577 at the Black Assizes, when the judge, the sheriff, most of the jurors, and nearly one hundred members of the University perished, and even the physicians retreated before the appalling pestilence, he remained at his post ministering to the wants of the sick with a devotion that earned for him the public gratitude. 2 He subsequently evinced like courage, though in a different direction, by suspending, in 1584, one of the clergy of his archdeaconry for nonconformity, though the offender was the Earl of Leicester's chaplain and kinsman to Archbishop Whitgift. As Bickley was of too honest and independent a nature to be restrained from doing his duty from any fear of consequences, so Whitgift was too large-souled, and too much influenced by his sense of the interests of the Church, to resent such an act by hindering his preferment. 1 " Parker Correspondence," p. 278. 2 "Memorials of Merton College," by Hon. G. C. Brodrick, p. 64. 298 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. Accordingly, he recommended him to the queen for the Bishopric of Chichester, to which, but after a long delay, he was consecrated January 30, 1586. Of his episcopate little or nothing is known, and we are left to infer its nature from his fitness for it, according to the testimony which Archbishop Parker gave, when in 1570 he recommended him for the See of Oxford. "I know," he wrote to Sir W. Cecil, " that he is disciplinable, and will be ruled by counsel, and is of his nature both sincere and stout enough, and apt to govern." l We may be certain that a man of whom Parker thus wrote would be vigorous against all nonconformists and recusants ; yet from another writer we learn that he was " much beloved throughout his diocese." 2 He died on April 30, 1586, and was buried in the cathedral with a monumental effigy. He left ;ioo to Merton College, from which bequest came the Bickley scholarship. MATTHEW HUTTON. 1525-1606. BISHOP OF DURHAM, 1589; ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, 1595. ARCHBISHOP MATTHEW HUTTON I., as he has been sometimes termed to distinguish him from his de- scendant, Matthew Hutton II., also Archbishop of York and subsequently of Canterbury, was descended from an ancient but decayed Lancashire family. He was born at Priest Hutton, in the parish of Warton in that county, the residence of his father, Matthew Hutton, who had two other sons an elder, Edmund, and a younger, Robert. The future archbishop, though 1 " Parker Correspondence," p. 360. 2 Wood's " Athenae Oxonienses," ed. Bliss. MATTHEW HUTTON. 299 reared in somewhat straitened circumstances, was not the shoeless and stockingless foundling dependent on a stranger for his support, as the idle legend narrates. Though rich in ancestry, he was poor in this world's goods, and it was as a humble sizar that he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, about l the year 1 543. On taking his degree of B. A. he gave himself to the study of theology, in which he became so conspicuously proficient as to be made Margaret Professor of Divinity in 1561, and Regius Professor of Divinity the following year. Archbishop Grindal was his great friend and patron, and in 1561 made him his chaplain and gave him a prebend of St. Paul's, and by his strong recommendation secured his election to the Mastership of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, in 1562. Over that college Hutton presided for four years, and with great acceptance. In 1563 he was presented to the Rectory of Boxworth, Cambridgeshire, by John Hutton, Esq., M.P. for that county, and, as has been said, his uncle. The turning-point in his career was the queen's visit to the University in 1564, when he kept the Divinity Act in her presence. The subjects treated of were the authority of the Scriptures as being greater than that of the Church, and the supremacy 2 of the sovereign in all causes ecclesiastical as well as civil. He handled these topics with extreme ability, and earned the royal approbation, which showed itself in the following year in being presented to a canonry of Westminster. In 1566 he preached before the Court, and also at Paul's Cross, receiving the Deanery of York in 1 567. He then resigned his mastership, and also his stalls at Ely and Westminster, in exchange 1 In a letter to Burghley, written October 6, 1573, Hutton states that he had then " known the University almost thirty years ago." 2 Queen Elizabeth, however, as we learn from Bishop Jewel (" Zurich Letters," i. p. 33), refused to be called "the head of the Church of England," a title which she declared belonged to Christ alone, but accepted the title of governor (p. 24). 3OO LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. for prebends at York and Southwell, and the benefices of Settrington and Leake, both in Yorkshire. As dean he was commendably firm in protecting the revenues and privileges of the cathedral against all invaders of them. His resistance to Archbishop Sandys has already been mentioned. In 1589 he became Bishop of Durham, and was consecrated at York, July 27. This preferment, worth 1800 a year, he obtained solely by the influence of Burghley and Whitgift. He had been accused by Sandys of depraving the Prayer-book by recognising, and even defending, the genuineness of Dean Whittingham's non-episcopal ordination, but soon after his consecration he pro- mulgated his views on that subject ; for dining with Burghley and Walsingham, who desired to know his opinions on the points at issue between the Church of England and the Puritans in that respect, he told them that " there was an essential difference between the office of a bishop and that of a presbyter, especially in the conferring of holy orders, which belonged to the bishop alone," and further, that "to say that a bishop was the same as a presbyter was heresy." l A few months after his consecration he came into collision with the Court. The Mastership of Sherburn Hospital, which was vacant, and by a recent Act of Parliament in the gift of the bishop, appeared to Elizabeth to be a very nice post to confer on her great favourite, Sir Henry Lee, and she accordingly requested, or rather commanded, the bishop so to dispose of it. But Hutton thought otherwise, and resisted the royal dictation. The place, as Sir Francis Walsingham wrote to him, ought to be filled by a learned divine and a good preacher, who by his doctrine and hospitality might do good where it was 1 Strype's " Life of Whitgift," vol. iii. pp. 224-228 : Bishop Hutton to Archbishop \Vhitgift, October 10, 1589. MATTHEW HUTTON. 3OI needed. The bishop acted on this advice, and gave the mastership to his nephew, Robert Hutton, senior fellow and tutor of his own college of Trinity, an appointment with which her Majesty was much displeased. 1 In 1595 Hutton was translated to the Archbishopric of York, a removal to which he was extremely averse, and exerted his influence with Whitgift to prevent it. For Durham was the more valuable see, 2 and the expenses connected with translation were very great. Besides, he was, so at least he declared, in weak health " an old man and a sickly." However, though Whitgift did his best, the queen would hear of no objections. " Hutton shall remove," she declared, and when she so expressed herself it was pretty certain that Hutton would remove, and remove he did. The conge d'e'lire was issued February 6, and he was elected on the I4th. Among the reasons, it is to be believed, which made him object to translation was that he would be expected to make serious alienations of his estates. Indeed, between his nomination by the queen in- council on December i, 3 and the issuing of the conge d'elire two months afterwards, she ordered Sir Robert Cecil to write to him, and exact a promise that he would convey to her a lease of certain lands belonging to the archbishopric as soon as he should be put in possession. This Bishop Hutton, very properly regarding as a simoniacal contract, refused to make, whereupon Cecil wrote him the following insolent letter: "Yow thincke it mought be simonious in theise cases so to passe any suche promises to the Queene, as though you bargained for the Bushoprike. Wee 1 " Hutton Correspondence," p. 77 and note. 2 At this time the annual value of Durham was ^1821 ; of York, 10 Rymer's " Fcedera." 302 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. thincke it very absurde to make the personne of a prince and a subject anie thing lyke ; for he that can least distinguishe cannot but see also that the case is whollie changed when a Bushop is a suter for a Bushopricke by anie subjected mediacion, or takes a lyving upon condicion, and where a prince, that gives all, requires for some consideration but somewhat of him on whom (out of her owne free grace) shee is contented the whole shalbe conferred. To conclude : your Lordship shall do well to advise yourselfe of some better reasone if yow determine to make denyall : for as nether her Majestic will require of yow anie thing unjust, nether wee wilbe wanting to yow in anie thing wherein wee maie safelie excuse yow, so wee cannot but admonishe yow that theese nyceties will hardly be admitted where suche a prince vouchsafes to intreate." 1 The archbishop yielded, for though the handwriting of the epistle was Cecil's, its sentiments and menaces were the queen's, and on being put in full possession of his see, signed the required lease. So, at least, we assume from a letter of Cecil's, written to Archishop Hutton a fortnight after he had obtained restitution of his temporalities, in which he addressed him in honeyed terms as " a reverent prelate " whom it was "her Majestie's honour to grace.'' 5 The grace in question was a free pardon for Lady Margaret Nevile, daughter of the Earl of West- morland, which Bishop Hutton had long, but ineffectually, endeavoured to obtain, but which, as Cecil now wrote, the queen had that " very houre " signed. If in the matter of surrendering the lease to a rapacious courtier he had put some strain upon his conscience, we may safely credit him with so humane 1 " Hutton Correspondence," p. 94. Cecil's letter was dated January 17, 1594-5, and the archbishop's, to which it was an answer, December 29, 1 594. 2 Ibid., p. 101. MATTHEW HUTTON. 303 and noble a motive for the deed as almost to turn it into a virtuous action. The hapless young lady for whom Hutton had pleaded was but five years old when her father was executed for treason in 1569, and it was no wonder that she grew up in her father's religion. Of no other offence was she guilty ; but, having been found in the company of a seminary priest, she was tried at the Durham Assizes in 1 594 and condemned to death. Pending her execution she was committed to the custody of Bishop Hutton. The old prelate proved a very gentle gaoler, and his sympathy was drawn out in behalf of the unfortunate orphan, and being aware that the only hope of saving her life lay in her renouncing Romanism, he strenu- ously endeavoured to persuade her to do so. At last he succeeded, but though he was a very learned bishop and able disputant, the executioner's axe was probably the most cogent argument in the contro- versy. Another instance of his humanity occurred soon after he became archbishop. One Miles Dawson, a seminarist, had been sentenced to death at York Assizes in 1596 for exercising his function as a priest Conversion to Protestantism alone could save him, which Hutton laboured hard to effect, and at last with apparent success, for he attended the Church service, received the Communion, and took the oath of supremacy. For some time the archbishop laboured to obtain his pardon from the Crown, but in vain, till a timely bribe of " twenty French crowns out of his own purse " secured it. It was, however, conditional on his remaining a loyal Protestant. 1 As President of the Northern Council he was obliged to take proceedings against the recusants, 1 "Hutton Correspondence," p. m; Strype's " Annals," iv. pp. 424-426 ; Docquet (of pardon), June 22, 1597. The archbishop in his will left a pension of ,5 to his "Servant Myles Dawson " (" Hutton Correspondence," p. 181). 304 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. but the queen, on his retirement in 1599, after four years' tenure of the office, complained of his "over- much tolleracion used to recusants and such other parsones," 1 which had been shown in the discharge of the Ecclesiastical Commission. His successor in the Presidentship on assuming office wrote to the Government of the recusants of Yorkshire as having long been left asleep, but against whom he had intimated his purpose of taking active measures. 2 This was, of course, intended as a censure of Arch- bishop Hutton's supineness, but to us it is a testi- monial of his Christian tolerance. An anecdote has, however, been related of him which, if true, somewhat impairs his gentleness of demeanour towards the Romanists. The queen, who seemingly thought force the best argument to dispose people to receive the gospel, commanded that the recusants of Yorkshire should be compelled to attend a course of fifty sermons to be preached by the ablest Anglican divines in York Cathedral, and in defence of Protestant doctrines. There were, so at least it was declared by a Yorkshire clergyman living at that time, "above 20,000 obstinate Recusantes" in the archdeaconry of Richmond alone. 3 Drafts of these were driven in like flocks of sheep, and the cathedral on each preaching day was packed with a most unwilling audience. On one of those occasions Archbishop Hutton was the preacher, and taking for his text our Lord's words to the unbelieving Jews, " He that is of God heareth God's words : ye therefore hear them not because ye are not of God " (John viii. 47), he excited his listeners to such a transport of rage and shouts of 1 "Hutton Correspondence," p. 146 : The Queen to the Archbishop of York, August 24, 1599. 2 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cclxxii. 112, p. 321. 3 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cclxiii. 52 : Letter of " John Jackson, preacher of God's Worde to the Church of Melsonbye," May 14, I597- MATTHEW MUTTON. 305 anger that to obtain silence he ordered them to be gagged That he preached the sermon as here related is probably true, but that he ordered violence to be used to his audience must be deemed a worthless tradition. 1 It may be added that Arch- bishop Whitgift wrote to Hutton, strongly disap- proving of these compulsory sermons. 2 We may well believe that Hutton agreed with his brother primate, and that he preached the sermon only out of deference to the royal command. It must be said that he afterwards regarded Romanism differently, and felt very strongly that it was a standing peril to Church and State, which, accordingly, needed vigorous suppression. An interesting episode in Hutton's public life was a sermon he preached before the queen soon after he became archbishop, and which has been narrated to us by Sir John Harington, 3 who was present. It was desired by the Government at that time that the queen should name her successor a course of pro- ceeding she was very unwilling to adopt, since, to use her own phrase, it was like pinning up her winding sheet before her face. Hutton, whose duty it was to occupy the royal pulpit that Sunday, suited his sermon to the policy of the Government, from whom he had probably received a hint to do so. It was like bearding the lion, or rather lioness, in its den, but the old prelate was never lacking in courage, and he did not lack it then. Accordingly, the day having arrived, and the chapel at Whitehall being crowded with peers, bishops, and other great people for it was the time of Parliament the archbishop entered the pulpit, and having, accord- ing to usage, made three low bows to the queen, who 1 Thoresby names it in his " Vicaria Leodiensis," pp. 144, 145. 2 " Hutton Correspondence," p. 155 : Archbishop Whitgift to Hutton, June 7, 1600. 3 "Briefe View," pp. 186-191, X 306 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. was in her closet which was right opposite the pulpit, opened his manuscript and " thundered" out his text, which was from the prophecy of Jeremiah, of which, however, he gave rather a paraphrase than the exact language : " The kingdoms of the earth are mine, and I doe give them to whom I will, and I have given them to Nebuchodnozor and his son, and his son's son" (Jeremiah xxvii. 6, 7). The manoeuvre of altering his text to adapt it the better to his purpose arrested at once the attention of the audience. In the delivery of his sermon his vehemence and earnestness were so great that he seemed to all who saw and heard him more to resemble the prophet himself than a mere expositor of his words. Nor was the discourse itself less remarkable. It must have been a long one, even for that age of long discourses, for in it he gave a resume of the history of the world, and the dealings of Divine Providence therein, and, starting from Babylon and Nebuchad- nezzar, he finally arrived at Scotland and James VI. As he neared this goal the queen showed signs of uneasiness, and drawing herself further into her closet, shut the window. The sermon ended, every eye was turned upon her in expectation of an out- burst of anger, such as she had on former occasions shown to preachers whose discourses had not been palatable. But they were disappointed, for, opening her window, she thanked the archbishop for his very learned sermon. This, however, was only dissimulation, for no sooner had he got back to his lodgings in Cannon Row, than he was waited on by two members of the Privy Council with such a sharp message from her Majesty, that he hardly knew whether he must not consider himself a prisoner in his own house. Some little time afterwards a great nobleman sent Sir John Harington to the archbishop to ask for a loan of the sermon, or at least for a copy of it, a request with MATTHEW HUTTON. 307 which he was much too prudent to comply, remark- ing that, bad as matters were, they would only be made worse if the sermon were read. On the death of the queen he wrote to her successor a letter of cordial congratulation, and tendered his devoted allegiance. Though he had retired from public life he took an interest in ecclesiastical affairs, and though unable to be present at the Hampton Court Con- ference, he communicated to Whitgift his opinions on the matters to be discussed there. One of those opinions was that the laying on of episcopal hands was essential to right ordination, since the Presbytery was only a human ordinance, while bishops derived their authority direct from the Apostles. He was also entirely opposed to any alteration of the Liturgy and to the practice of lay baptism. 1 Archbishop Hutton was loyal, but he was neither servile nor blind to the faults of James, two of which, his extreme prodigality and his excessive love of field sports to the injury of his subjects, he severely censured in a letter he wrote to Cecil. 2 Cecil's reply more became a courtier than an English statesman r for it was to the effect that his Majesty must have his pleasures, which no good subject would grudge, even at some inconvenience. 3 Archbishop Hutton died on January 10, 1606. He had been thrice married, but by his second wife only did he have any children. He purchased an estate at Marske, where his descendants still reside. The story that his son Luke was executed for robbery, and that the archbishop, with the obduracy of a Brutus, made no effort to save his life, must be regarded as apocryphal. 1 Strype's "Life of Whitgift," ii. 247. 2 State Papers, James I., vol. x. 64, p. 177. 3 Ibid., ibid., vol. x. 66. 308 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. RICHARD FLETCHER. 1544-1596. BISHOP OF BRISTOL, 1589 ; WORCESTER, 1593 ; LONDON, 1595. BISHOP FLETCHER, father of the celebrated dramatist, was, according to Fuller, born at Cranbrook, Kent, where his father was vicar, who had been ordained, it is said, by Bishop Ridley, and at the accession of Queen Mary held the Vicarage of Bishop's Stortford, of which he was then deprived. The future bishop, therefore, must in his youth have imbibed strong Protestant principles and a deep hatred of Romanism, augmented, it is to be believed, when as a boy of eleven he was taken by his father to witness the burning for heresy of Christopher Wade, 1 by order of the Bishop of Rochester, at Dartford, Kent, in July, I555- He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1566, but afterwards migrated to Corpus, and in 1569 received the first of Archbishop Parker's four Norfolk fellowships. In 1572 he was collated to a prebend of St. Paul's, and in the following year the archbishop introduced him to the queen, who made him her chaplain. About 1 574 he was preferred to the Vicarage of Rye, Sussex, which he held till 1579. His handsome person, courtly manners, and elegant sermons alike pleased Elizabeth, and she took him into her especial favour, even condescending to teach him how to trim his beard. 2 Yet he must have had sterling merit, for Whitgift, a great discerner of it, 1 Foxe's " Acts and Monuments," ed. Townshend, vol. vii. pp. 319- 322. 2 "Briefe View," p. 26. RICHARD FLETCHER. 309 recommended him for the Deanery of Windsor. 1 He did not obtain it, but in 1583 he earnestly requested the Deanery of Peterborough, which the queen gave him, though she had already promised it to another. 2 In 1586 he received a prebend of Lincoln and the Rectory of Barnack, Northants. He also held that of Alderkirke in Lincolnshire. He was present at the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, at Fotheringay, on February 8, 1587, and has been reproached by historians for disturbing her last moments by an unwarrantable intrusion of his Protestant opinions and his fierce invectives against the Roman faith. He was, however, but acting on his instructions; besides, there is no doubt that he fully believed no Romanist could be saved, and though to us his zeal may appear excessive, if not barbarous, it was warranted by his own convictions and his desire to save a soul from everlasting ruin. The result was an indecorous scene, when each strove to out-pray the other a contest in which the queen proved victorious. When the executioner, his work done, showed the severed head to the people who filled the hall, Fletcher, in deep and audible tones, exclaimed, " So let Queen Elizabeth's enemies perish!" From Fotheringay he went straight to Court, where he preached a sermon before the queen in justification of the drama which had just been performed. The part he had played in it entitled him to the reward of a mitre ; but for two years no bishopric became vacant. Then Bishop Bullingham, who held both the Sees of Gloucester and Bristol, was deprived of the latter, which was immediately given to Fletcher, who was accordingly consecrated on December 14, 1589. His episcopate there was noteworthy only for his alienation of the property of the bishopric, in making leases of its manors to the favourites of the queen, 1 Strype's " Life of Whitgift," vol. i. p. 337. 2 See " Life of Bishop Howland," p. 287. 310 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. and at merely nominal rents. Harington relates that, to a friend who humorously twitted him with his spoliations, he replied with a courtly bow, " The Lord pardon thy servant in this thing." l The conduct of Naaman, however, in bowing down in the house of Rimmon to avoid his master's displeasure can scarcely be deemed a precedent which justified Fletcher in impoverishing his see to gratify the queen. The bishop does not seem to have been the loser by the leases he made ; at any rate, his income was increased by "commendams" of many valuable pre- ferments, 2 and on February 5, 1591, he became Lord High Almoner. That office kept him in close attendance at Court, and he lived for the most part at Chelsea. In 1593 he was translated to Worcester, and on the death of Aylmer applied for the Bishopric of London. One great reason he put forward why he should receive it was the affection and regard which the citizens of London felt for him, and which would, he argued, "give him an influence as bishop which would be very useful to the State." 3 Neither the Romanists nor the Puritans could have shared these feelings ; the one party hating him for his conduct at Fotheringay, and the other abhorring him for his opposition to the pardon of Barrow and Greenwood when Burghley was disposed to grant it. 4 His application was successful, and on January 10, 1595, his election was confirmed. But he had to pay for it, and was required by the queen to grant 'gratifications" amounting to ."2100 to certain persons whom she named, 5 and besides these exac- tions, there were requirements of estates to be leased out for the benefit of certain royal favourites. "Briefe View," p. 25. Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. ccxxxii. 7. Lansdowne MSS., Ixxvi. 84. Date, June 29, 1594. State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. ccxliv. 124, pp. 341, 342. Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cclix. 47, p. 248. June, 1596. RICHARD FLETCHER. 311 Shortly before the issuing of the conge cTttire he wrote to Sir Robert Cecil explaining the difficulty he felt in complying with the demands which had been made. There were, he observed, in connection with them, "two especiall things" which in his con- science he was bound to regard ; the one being " the scandall w c h such conditions of comminge to dignities eccliasticall " brought with it, and the other " the great disadvantage it giveth to the Bysshoprick and the successors therein." No other see, he supposed, had been " so left of late " since the queen's accession as that of London, and if with " the great somes of monie paiable to her Ma ty for first fruites, and doble subsidies yerelie," the Bishoprick was to be stripped of "such poore helpes as come by fines, it would, as far as he could see, be impossible to main- tain the dignitie of the place," which his predecessor Aylmer had failed to do. Still he was ready to submit himself entirely to the royal will, and would endure anything rather than "loose the least mite of her grace." l The queen read the letter with deep displeasure. That a creature of her own, whom she had brought from a rustic parsonage to the episcopal throne, should dare to talk about being bound in his conscience to regard anything but her royal will and pleasure, was an excess of insolence that called for severe punish- ment. She had, it was true, on his being made a bishop, told him that if ever she laid upon him any command contrary to his conscience he must acquaint her with the fact, promising that he should not thereby lose her favour ; but her sincerity was on a par with that of the Archbishop of Toledo when he charged Gil Bias to let him know whenever he perceived any falling-off in his homilies, and her treatment of Fletcher resembled his. She did not, indeed, send him to the Tower, but 1 Cecil MSS., Hatfield,29(24). "At Chelsea this yof December, 1594." 312 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. she kept him a prisoner in his own house. Then Fletcher, thoroughly alarmed, ceased to raise any obstacles, and hastened to surrender the leases of Bishop's Stortford and Broxbourne, which she had demanded, and he concluded his letter by professing that "not all the preferments in the realme could give so much joye to my poore heart as her Ma tie ' displeasure doth yeeld bitterness." l The queen was pacified, and allowed his election to proceed, granting him his temporalities a fortnight afterwards ; 2 but he had hardly been put in posses- sion of his see when his marriage with Lady Baker, a handsome young widow, renewed her anger and led to his downfall. The marriage was every way unsuitable, for the lady's character was but indifferent, and her husband had not been dead a twelvemonth. Besides, the Queen had formerly exacted from Fletcher a promise that he would not marry again, and when, a few months before, the rumour that he was about to marry Lady Baker came to her knowledge she taxed him with it, and the bishop denied its truth. He afterwards declared that when he gave this denial he had no intention of marrying an excuse which her Majesty refused to accept. Thus Bishop Fletcher had not only broken his promise to the queen, but also, as she believed, told her a falsehood ; and woe to that man who dared to deceive Elizabeth ! Her wrath wanted little to kindle it into a consuming fire, and that little was supplied by the comments of the Londoners, that spared neither the bishop nor his wife, whom they lampooned in ribald verse too gross for repetition ; 3 for it was a reflection on her choice in selecting so wanton a divine for the metropolitan see. 1 Cecil MSS., Hatfield, December 21, 1594. - Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. ccli. I and 4. 3 Cole's Additional MSS. (Crewe), British Museum. RICHARD FLETCHER. 313 The bishop soon felt the weight of the royal hand ; he was banished from Court and suspended from his office and jurisdiction. Retiring to Chelsea, he wrote to Sir R. Cecil a long letter, in which, but after a very lame fashion, he excused his conduct " My promise and vow, as it were, not to mary," he wrote, " is especially pressed, wher agaynst, because it pleased her highnes to pronounce it I nether dare nor may contest but unto yo r Ho I must say in the word of Christianity I remember it no farther then y l I con- ceyved ther might no snare be cast upon myconscience. I did not then meditate any such matter but my marriage should never be a hindraunce to my payn- fulnes in my function or A barr to anything requyred of a man of my vocatio. And concerning my dis- avowing this pticular match bruted a o^ter of a yere since and cuming to her Mtys knowledge it is most true I so did for at that p r sent ther had bene nether motio nor intentio to y 1 purpose." l To the Lord Treasurer Burghley, also, the poor prelate, in imploring his mediation with the queen, thus expressed the bitterness of his wounded spirit, " Raly my good L. I could have wisshed y* when I hard it 2 I had also hard, if Justice would have so pmitted, to have beene sequestred from my lyfe it selfe." 8 At first the queen did not deprive him of the almonership a post which, apparently, he coveted more than his bishopric, but signified to him that she expected him to perform its duties on Maundy Thursday as usual, and he had, in fact, received the money for distribution to the aged recipients of the royal bounty. But reports having come to her ears of certain " insolent speeches and words " used by the bishop and his wife against herself, her Majesty, 1 Cecil MSS., Hatfield, 25 (26). The letter is dated Chelsea, February n. The year was 1594-5. 2 i.e. the sentence of his sequestration. 3 Cecil MSS., Hatfield. 314 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. April 15, 1595, and at such short notice that it was, he said, " almost impossible " to obey her without causing "great confusion to all and discontment to many," commanded him not to officiate, and trans- ferred the almonership to Dr. Anthony Watson. This blow was most heavily felt by Bishop Fletcher, and, as he wrote to Sir R. Cecil, was " a thing so grievous that he wanted words to express it." x It filled the cup of his bitterness to overflowing, and probably hastened his death, for to him life without the smiles and favour of Elizabeth was but mere existence. The almonership he never regained, but in a few months he was restored to the exercise of his epis- copal functions, and on July 20, 1595, assisted at the consecration of Morgan to the See of Llandaff, and in the following September visited his diocese, of the state of which he wrote a particular account to Sir R. Cecil. Upon the whole, though with some serious exceptions, the report was favourable, from a religious point of view, both as regarded the people and the clergy. He seems to have done his duty as a wise and faithful chief pastor, preaching often and labour- ing to make peace when he found differences among the congregation, and to bring them to a respect for order and authority. He was still, however, an outcast from royal grace, and in his letter he earnestly expresses his longing for the queen's " favourable aspect." 2 But she remained inexorable, deeming that her once favourite prelate was either not sufficiently penitent, or had not yet been adequately humbled. Towards the close of the year there was evidence of some faint relentings in the royal bosom, for she spoke kindly of him once or twice, and the disgraced prelate, to whom the gracious 1 Calendar of Cecil MSS., Hatfield, pt. v. p. 171. 2 Cecil MSS., Hatfield, 35 (103), 33. The letter is dated from Fulham, September 29, 1595. RICHARD FLETCHER. 315 words of royalty had been reported, saw in them the promise of restoration to her presence. Accordingly he wrote once more to Burghley on January 7, 1596, imploring his mediation and good offices. 1 But nothing came of it, for Elizabeth, who had a large share of spite in her composition, probably amused herself with Bishop Fletcher's mental torture. After an interval of three months he wrote again, this time to Sir Robert Cecil, but to the same purpose. "These 14 months past," he wrote, "have not past w^iout more contrition to me for hir highnes dis- pleasure then twise so many years. I much hoped y l my error, such as y l was, had receyved remission both a pcena et a culpa" 2 Her Majesty, touched at last by so much patience and .humiliation, sent him a gracious message in reply, for which the following day Bishop Fletcher expressed his gratitude in a letter to Cecil. 3 She promised to pay him a visit at his fine house at Chelsea, in which he had built a staircase and a door, conducting to a bow window, expressly for her recep- tion. Harington is of opinion, 4 and he certainly ought to have known, that the queen paid him the promised visit. It is to be hoped, for the credit of the royal prerogative of mercy, that she did. The restorative, however, came too late to heal a heart which the loss of royal favour, combined with a sense of public disgrace, had broken. On June 13, 1596, he had officiated at the conse- cration of Bilson, his successor in the See of Worcester. Two days afterwards he expired suddenly while sitting in his bedroom smoking, a practice to which he was much addicted. 5 He died in debt, not only to the queen for firstfruits, but also to numerous 1 The letter is printed in Strype's " Life of Whitgifr," iii. p. 315. 2 Cecil MSS., Hatfield, 39 (90). Date of letter, April 4, 1596. 3 Ibid., 39 (92). Dated April 5, 1596. 4 "Briefe View," p. 27. 5 Ibid., p. 28. 316 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. tradesmen, whose claims alone all his property was insufficient to satisfy, 1 and a petition was presented to her Majesty in behalf of his eight orphan children, left totally unprovided for, but with what result is not known. He was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral, but no monument was reared to his memory. JOHN UNDERHILL. 1544-1592. BISHOP OF OXFORD, 1589. BISHOP UNDERHILL was born at Oxford in a house called Cross Inn, which had been long occupied by his ancestors. 2 He received his education at Win- chester and New College, Oxford, of which he became Fellow in 1563, graduating as B.A. in 1564. In 1567 he actively resisted the visitation of his college by Bishop Home. He became Rector of Lincoln College in 1577, received a royal chaplaincy in 1581, and the benefices of Bampton and Witney in 1587. In 1589 Walsinghatn recommended him to the queen for the Bishopric of Oxford. It had been vacant for twenty-one years, and an occupant was required for the purpose of renewing the leases of the episcopal estates and receiving the large fines due at such renewals. The former of these at least the best of them were to be conveyed to the Earl of Essex, 3 while the latter were to go into the pocket of Walsingham. Underbill had no desire for this 1 A schedule of his debts is given in the Lambeth MSS. 2 Notices of the Underbill family are to be found in "Notes and Queries," Series III., vol. i. p. 285 ; Series IV., vol. ii. p. 259 ; and vol. v. pp. 459, 508, and 609. 3 Lansdowne MSS. (Kennet), 982. GERVASE BABINGTON. 317 preferment, which was of small value ; but his objec- tions were removed by the promise of speedy translation to a more valuable bishopric, and he was consecrated on December 14, 1589. The promise of promotion was never kept ; possibly his early death, which happened at Green- wich on May 12, 1592, prevented it. He died, says Harrington, in "much discontent and poverty," l and, he adds, in debt to the queen for firstfruits. This statement, however, is incorrect, for he was discharged of their payment fourteen months after his consecra- tion. Bishop Underhill was married, and had a daughter. GERVASE BABINGTON. 1551-1610. BISHOP OF LLANDAFF, 1591; EXETER, 1595; WORCESTER, 1597. BISHOP BABINGTON was born in Devonshire, 2 though some have assigned Nottinghamshire as his native county. He took his B.A. degree as a member of Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1572, and was elected a fellow in 1575, and University preacher in 1580. Lord Burghley was his patron, to whom, as he himself acknowledged, 3 he owed much of his preferment. About 1586 he became chaplain to the Earl of Pembroke, through whose influence he obtained two years afterwards a prebend of Hereford, and subse- quently the treasurership of Llandaff. He was also lecturer of Cardiff. At Wilton he wrote his " Exposition of the Lord's 1 "Briefe View," p. 149. 2 Prince's "Worthies of Devon," p. 37. 3 Calendar State Papers, James I., vol. xxviii. p. 128. 318 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. Prayer," and assisted the wife of his patron, that " subject of all verse, Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother," in her translation of the Psalms into English metre. His preaching powers put him into the chief pulpits of the metropolis, and in 1590 we find him preaching at Court and Paul's Cross. His abilities, backed by powerful influence for not only was Burghley his firm friend, but the Earl of Essex, then at the summit of his favour, had been his pupil- recommended him to the queen, who gave him the Bishopric of LlandafT, to which he was consecrated on August 29, 1591. The poverty of the see (its income was but 154) drew from him the jesting remark, that he ought to be called the Bishop of AfF because the land was gone. 1 He kept, however, his Hereford prebend, and was made a magistrate for the two counties of his diocese. 2 In 1595 he was translated to Exeter, whence, having stopped there long enough to alienate from the see its best manor of Crediton, he was translated to the Bishopric of Worcester in 1597- That the Earl of Essex had a great share in obtaining for him this valuable preferment cannot be doubted, and in the time of his trouble the bishop did not forget his former pupil at Trinity, who was also a near connection of his patroness the Countess of Pembroke ; for when in 1600 the earl was a prisoner and in disgrace, and great sympathy was felt for him by the Londoners, it was Babington's turn to preach before the queen, and he determined to appeal to the compassion of the incensed Elizabeth. A diarist of the time thus records the inci- dent " The Erie of Essex tarries where he was, a man 1 " Briefe View," p. 129. 2 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. ccxli. p. 192. Date, February 24, 1592. GERVASE BABINGTON. 319 quite out of minde" with the courtiers and parasites that is " and yet Babbington, Bishop of Worcester, preaching at Cort on Sunday last, made many profers and glaunces in his behalf, as he was understoode by the whole auditorie, and by the Quene herselfe, who presently calling him to a reckoning for it, he flatly forswore that he had any such meaninge." x If the good old prelate really did eat his own words as Chamberlain relates, the circumstance puts in a clear light the awe with which Elizabeth inspired even the most pious and excellent of her bishops. It is, however, not improbable that the narrator of the incident was not present at the sermon, and gave it at second hand, for from what is known of Babington it seems almost impossible that he could have been guilty of uttering a deliberate falsehood. Babington was present at the Hampton Court Conference, and on the king's declaring that the words in the Liturgy were in favour of lay baptism, remarked that they were designedly ambiguous in order that the Prayer-book might the easier pass through Parliament. 2 He was strongly anti-Romish, and once, when in the House of Lords Bancroft moved that the Romanists should have a toleration for four years, replied, that " it was a pity they should be tolerated for seven days." 3 Religion, however, and not politics nor polemics, was his chief concern. In 1604 he had preached an eloquent sermon at the funeral of Whitgift, his old tutor at Trinity, and in the same year he published a Commentary on the Pentateuch, under the name of " Notes/' Though he cowered before Elizabeth, he had courage enough to withstand James I. when, in 1608, he refused to institute his nominee to a 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cclxxiv. 71. March 5, 1600. 2 Barlow's " Summe and Substance." 3 Walter Yonge's " Diary " (published by Camden Society), p. 6. Date, 1606. 320 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. benefice in his diocese. 1 In the same year he also resisted, and that successfully, the citizens of Wor- cester in their endeavour to obtain a new charter, which would have been prejudicial to the rights of the bishopric. 2 Bishop Babington died on May 17, 1610, and was buried in his cathedral. As a theologian he was much esteemed, and his works 3 passed through several editions, the last being published in 1637. They were all practical or expository, and the best of them, his " Exposition of the Commandments," was published in 1581. JOHN COLDWELL. 1531-1656. BISHOP OF SALISBURY, 1591. BISHOP COLDWELL was born at Faversham, Kent, and graduated B. A. at St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1555. Having been ordained, he received the Rectory of Aldington, Kent, in 1558, in which year he was also elected a Fellow of his college, when he studied physic, and took his M.D. degree in 1564. Conforming to Protestantism, he was patronised successively by Archbishops Parker, Grindal, and Whitgift, became Archdeacon of Chichester in 1571, received the Rectories of Tunstall and Saltwood, and the Deanery of Rochester in 1581. Such patronage would show him to have been a person of some merit, though his after conduct sadly belied it. Harington's remark of Coldwell, that "of a physician he was 1 Calendar State Papers, James I., vol. xxxv. 23, p. 448. Date, July 18, 1608. 2 Ibid., vol. xxviii. 138, p. 392. 3 They are enumerated in the " Biographia Britannica." JOHN COLD WELL. 321 made a bishop," implies that he practised medicine up to that time. Of his ability as a pastor there is no record, but his skill as a doctor was testified to by Archbishop Grindal, when he recommended him to the Earl of Leicester for the Deanery of Rochester, as having, in that capacity, found him, by his own experience, " to excell a great number." l Seven years after the date of this letter, Lord Burghley recommended him to the queen for the Bishopric of Salisbury, vacant by the translation of Piers to York, and she promised that he should have it. In our days the recommendation of the prime minister and the approbation of the Sovereign practi- cally settle the matter, all the other steps that have to be taken before consecration being merely formal and matters of course ; but in the golden age of Queen Elizabeth these things did not run quite so smoothly, and between the royal promise and its fulfilment there often intervened a long period of tantalising delay, when the chief courtiers were doing their best to put spokes in the wheel of the chosen candidate. It was so in this case. Piers went to York, but Coldwell did not go to Sarum, at least not for two years, and a terrible rumour reached him that the queen had changed her mind, and that he was not to be a bishop after all. In the agony of his mind he wrote to Burghley reminding him of his "longe expectation and sworne promise made for dispatche before Michaelmas next." This letter was written on the last day of August, but and here was the real and terrible point which had caused him to take pen in hand at his deanery in Rochester he had been " enformyd bye a good frend that eyther w'h speede yt will otherwise be bestowyd, or encombryd bye crossinge w fc h endles delayes." So "craving his honor's pardon for his 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cl. : Archbishop Grindal to the Earl of Leicester, August 15, 1581. Y 322 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. over-greate presumption in troubling him," he was, with his " humble prayers," his " Lordship's moste bounden and ever at comanndement, John Coldwell." 3 His wish in this humble epistle, though he did not put it in so many words, was that Burghley should bring the queen to book, and the drift of it was, that Burghley, having been his only patron, by whose favour it was that her majesty had promised him the bishopric, was bound in honour to bring the matter to a successful issue. The crossings and delays alluded to by Coldwell were owing to the fact that Raleigh, then high in favour with the queen and a most unprincipled land-grabber, coveted the manor of Sherborne, one of the best estates of the See of Salisbury, and whoever was to be bishop would be so only on the condition of giving effect to the alienation. At this time the see was being hawked about to the highest bidder, or, rather, to any divine who was sufficiently respectable to be a bishop, and yet would not object to alienate the manors of the see. In Dean Coldwell such a cleric was discovered. Whether during an early stage of the vacancy he was sounded in the matter and refused compliance, or whether the queen was desirous of meeting with a divine whom she would personally prefer to him if he would only comply with her terms, is not known. In either case she would not have let her promise stand much in her way. Subsequently, it was offered to Bennet, Dean of Windsor, 2 who is, perhaps, the person referred to in Coldwell's letter. As a matter of fact, however, Coldwell yielded, and the congt d'tlire for his election to the bishopric was issued on November 24, 1591, he was elected on December 2, received the royal assent on the iSth, 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. ccxxxv. 55. The letter is not dated, but it is endorsed by Burghley " ult. Aug., 1590." 2 See "Life of Bishop Bennet," p. 413. JOHN COLDWELL. 323 and was consecrated on the 26th. He obtained the restitution of his temporalities with unusual prompti- tude on January 14 folio wing. 1 Five days afterwards, the queen sent a letter to the Dean and Chapter of Salisbury requiring their " Confirmation of a lease granted by the Bishops to her Majesty for the behoof of Sir Walter Raleigh of certain lands parcel of the manor of Sherborne." 2 Bishop Coldwell seems to have done his best to protect the interests of the see, for the letter stated that the lease was not as beneficial to the recipient as was intended, owing, amongst other causes, to certain provisions which the bishop had insisted on making. Of the manor of Sherborne, which had formerly given the title to the see, there had been several surrenders to lay hands, but Bishop Coldweli had the discredit of effecting its final alienation from the Church. The temptation was certainly great, especially to a poor man, such as Dr. Coldwell seems to have been, for the Bishopric of Salisbury was one of the most valuable of all the bishoprics, and in 1575 its income was estimated at i^6y, 3 a revenue not far short of that of the Archbishopric of Canterbury. The act of spoliation, however, appeared to many to bring on those concerned in it the vengeance of God. Raleigh at once took possession of the estate, erecting on it a magnificent mansion, which he "beau- tified with orchards, gardens, and groves of much delight, so that it was unparalleled in those parts." 4 It was his favourite place of residence, but his tenure of it was short. At the close of the queen's reign he settled the Sherborne estate on his son Walter, but through the carelessness of a clerk, who in engrossing 1 Calendar of State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. ccxli. 16, p. 171. 2 Ibid., vol. ccxli. 21. 3 Lansdowne MSS., xxi. 20. * Coker's " Survey of Dorsetshire" (1732), p. 124. 324 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. the deed of conveyance, omitted a word, the docu- ment was declared by Chief Justice Popham to be no conveyance at all. This being so, the estate was still the property of Raleigh, and therefore, through his attainder for treason, passed into the possession of the king, who gave it to his worthless favourite, Robert Carr, who had asked for it. Lady Raleigh, on her knees, implored James to stay this act of cruel injustice. " Na, na," he replied, " I mun have the land ; I mun have it for Carr." l As for Bishop Coldwell, he seems to have been but little advantaged by his spoliation ; for Raleigh, so far from being satisfied with what he had got, wanted more, notably the manors of " Burton, Holmes, and Upcorn, worth to the see 88 bye yeare," and that without giving the bishop any rent for them, while leaving him to pay the " Tenths, Sub- sidies, and Fruits " which were chargeable on them to the queen. 2 That such dishonest conduct was part of Raleigh's systematic treatment of the bishop we learn from one of Coldwell's letters to Sir R. Cecil two years afterwards. "I beseeche yo r honour to acquaint S r Walter Raleighe that his man Meeres kepith mye farm and arregasies from mee so as I can not paye the queene mye duties." 3 The fact of his thus appealing for Cecil's intervention, goes far to show that he had appealed to Raleigh previously, and in vain. At this time Sir Robert Cecil himself was squeez- ing good things o.ut of the bishop, such as " a patent of the clerkship of Sarum," and the chancellorship. Both were in the bishop's gift, but the first was not vacant ; and the bishop, to use his own equivocal 1 Whitehead's "Life of Sir W. Raleigh," p. 177. Readers of Scott's novels will recollect the use Sir Walter makes of this incident in his " Fortunes of Nigel." 2 Hatfield MSS., April 10, 1594, in Murdin's State Papers, 675. 3 Ibid., April 22, 1596. In Murdin, but here taken from the original document. JOHN COLDWELL. 325 phrase, had to " practise " with the holder, one Jewel Hooper, a task, whatever it was, which he successfully accomplished. His letters l to Cecil on this subject breathe a spirit of entire submission to his will and pleasure. Though thus servile to the great, he appears to have been harsh and arbitrary in his treatment of his inferiors, and a petition against him was presented to the Privy Council, not long before his death, by the mayor and corporation of Salisbury, for illegal inter- ference with their privileges and oppressive treatment of their officers. He had, they declared, taken upon him to order the markets, had refused to recognise the mayor or allow the oath to be administered to him at Quarter Sessions. His officers, also, " lewd men," assaulted one of the mayor's Serjeants in the cathedral during service time, and took from him his mace, and then caused him to be indicted as a fighter with weapons in the churchyard. "The bishop heard the case, and gave the judgment that he should lose one of his eares." He also obtained a Quo Warranto against the corporation, intending to have their lands and leases to his own use. 2 Bishop Coldwell died at Salisbury on October 14, 1 596 ; and, says Harington, " no Bishop of Sarum since the Conquest died so notorious a beggar, his friends glad to bury him suddenly and secretly." 3 He was buried in the cathedral, '* thrust into the grave" of his predecessor, Wyvill, who had restored to the see the manor of Sherborne, of which Coldwell had deprived it. He was married, and was the first Bishop of Salisbury that ever was so. 1 State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. ccliv., p. 118. October 30, 1595, Hatfield MSS. 2 Lansdowne MSS., Ixxvii. (i). January 26, 1594-5. 3 " Briefe View," p. 92. 326 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. JOHN STILL. 1545-1608. BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS, 1593. BISHOP STILL was born at Grantham, and educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1562, and was elected a fellow of that college, as he was afterwards of Trinity. In 1570 he became Lady Margaret Preacher, and also Margaret Pro- fessor of Divinity, and though in after-life a strong anti-Puritan, he attended the lectures of Cartwright, and signed the petition in his favour. Archbishop Parker gave him the Rectory of Hadleigh in 1571 and the Deanery of Becking in 1572, and in 1573 he received the Vicarage of East Markham, and was made, through Burghley's influence, Canon of Westminster. In recommending him at this time for the Deanery of Norwich, Parker anticipated the objections that might be raised on the score of his youth, by remark- ing that, though he was but twenty-eight, he was " better mortified than some other of forty or fifty." 1 This preferment, however, he did not receive, but in 1574 became Master of St. John's College, Cam- bridge, where his strong churchmanship was needed to keep in check the tumultuous vagaries of the Puritanical fellows and students. Succeeding Whit- gift in the Mastership of Trinity in 1577, in which year he also received the Archdeaconry of Sudbury, he exhibited such an arbitrary spirit by ejecting two of the fellows for trifling reasons, that the chancellor, Burghley, wrote him a stinging letter, commanding 1 " Parker Correspondence," p. 450. JOHN STILL. 327 him to stay proceedings. In one case, the crime had been the uttering " opinions that tended to promote discord," ] and in the other, a technical violation of the statutes in the offender having taken his D.D. at Oxford. Here, however, personal differences had much to do with the dispute, which lasted four years and ended by the master turning the obnoxious fellow, who was also vice-master, out of his rooms by force, and scratching his name out of the but- teries. 2 Vigorous in every direction, he was so against the "Papists," against whom, in 1582, he was one of the divines authorised by the Government to argue, Indeed, he was one of the chief theological disputants of the time ; and what between the extent of his knowledge and his forcible mode of expressing it, " even the learned'st were afraid to dispute with him." His polemical abilities, however, were of no avail when, in 1583, he visited the unfortunate Brownists, Copping, Fawkes, and Gibson, in prison, in order to bring them from their errors, for they refused to be convinced, and were hung, drawn, and quartered accordingly. 3 He still retained his stall at Westminster ; and the dean's report, made in 1586, mentioned him as one who wore the habits, resided, and preached. 4 In 1588 he was chosen Prolocutor of Convocation, and in his ad clerum sermon made the Puritans the subject of strong invective. 5 In 1593 he was appointed to the Bishopric of Bath and Wells, and consecrated on February u. He gained his mitre without any suspicion of simony, direct or indirect. 6 His diocesan rule was strict, and 1 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. cl. 27, p. 27. October 4, 1581. 2 Strype's " Life of Parker," ii. 196. 3 Strype's "Annals," III. i. p. 269. 4 Ibid., III. ii. p. 415. 5 Strype's " Whitgift," i. 537. "Briefe View," p. 119. 328 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. he kept a firm hand on the " growing factionists." To the Puritans he was the object of aversion, and that not only on theological grounds; for, when Master of Arts, he had written at Cambridge a comedy, 1 in which he had introduced a drinking song in praise of beer ; and, when a bishop, he made the palace at Wells resound to the strains of the harpsi- chord and the lute, amusements which, to the sour Puritans, were suited only to such as " regarded not the work of the Lord, neither considered the operation of His hands." Moreover, he had notions on the sanctity of the sabbath, which to them were impious. 2 Nor, though a famous preacher, were his sermons at all to their taste, for instead of expounding the metaphysics of Calvinism, or arousing them by rhetorical appeals, his aim was to instruct them in sound doctrine, teaching them from Scripture not only what they ought to believe, but what they ought to practise. Here he was great, and Haring- ton, who was his friend and had been his pupil, tells us, that he "never went to him without becoming more religious, nor parted from him without being better instructed." Yet he had a practical mind, too, and in the Convo- cation of 1596 he introduced articles for the better keeping of parish registers, which were to be of parchment instead of paper, and to be kept in the church, and every entry to be published after morning and evening service. They were, however, only the re-enactment of former ones, which had been generally neglected. Bishop Still died at Wells, February 26, 1608, and was buried in the cathedral, where a monument was raised to his memory, having his effigy wearing epis- copal robes and a cope. The epitaph was from the 1 "A Ryght Pithy, Pleasaunt and Merie Comedie : Intytuld Gammer Gurton's Nedle." 2 Strype's " Annals," III. i. 496. ANTHONY RUDD. 329 pen of Camden. He had been twice married, and had children by both his wives. Harington's " Briefe View," so often quoted in this work, was first brought out in 1653 by his grandson, John Chetwynd, a clergyman at Wells, who dedicated it to Lady Pile, the granddaughter of Bishop Still. Its publication, according to Anthony Wood, was " exceedingly clamoured at by the loyal and orthodox clergy." " This Chetwynd," we are further told, was a " person deeply principled in Presbyterian tenets." ANTHONY RUDD. 1547-1615. BISHOP OF ST. DAVID'S, 1594. BISHOP RUDD was a native of Yorkshire, in which county his family had been long settled. Entering Trinity College, Cambridge, as a pensioner in 1562, he graduated B.A. in 1566, and was elected a fellow in 1570, and Greek Grammar Lecturer in 1572. He was beneficed with the Vicarage of Shudy Camps,, Cambridgeshire, and the Rectory of Stathern, Leices- tershire, and in 1585 was appointed to the Deanery of Gloucester. He was consecrated Bishop of St. David's, June 9, 1594. The queen was much pleased with his sermons, and one so especially delighted her that she sent Whitgift to him with a message that should he sur- vive the primate he was to be his successor. It was, of course, only an ill-natured hoax, but Bishop Rudd took it seriously, and, while hoping that the arch- bishop would live many years, modestly remarked that, should it be otherwise, there were " many others in England far fitter for the place than his own 330 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. unworthiness." But as to the sermon in question, he conceived that he had preached better and such as had " cost more time and pains in composing them." The archbishop was ready with an answer. " I tell you," he replied, " the truth is this : the queen now is grown weary of the vanities of wit and eloquence, wherewith her youth was formerly affected, and plain sermons which come home to her heart please her the best." x Bishop Rudd took the suggestion seriously, and, in an evil hour for himself, acted on it, and determined to preach a " plain sermon " that should go right " home to the heart " of her Majesty. In the following Lent, 1596, it was his turn to preach before the Court, and the solemnity of the season and the queen's ill health for she had lately been afflicted with insomnia and inflammation of the breast 2 together with her age for she was in her grand climacteric, being not far from sixty-three probably determined the subject of his discourse. As he stood up in the pulpit, which faced the royal closet, and saw the queen, a painted, wrinkled, be- wigged old woman, with no traces left of that beauty for which in youth she had been so celebrated, and yet with that grand air of majesty, for which she was still more distinguished, imprinted on every line of her face, he must have been filled with pity and with awe. Yet the former sentiment could not but predominate as he thought how soon the great monarch, who had ruled England so gloriously for nearly forty years, would pass away, and the noble, queenly form moulder in the darkness of the tomb. But he had one consolation. For the discourse he was about to deliver contained precious thoughts adapted to the case of the royal lady, who, "weary of the vanities of wit," longed for plain words and homely truths. His texts, so far as we know them from his 1 Fuller's "Church History," ed. J. S. Brewer, vol. v. pp. 435, 436. 2 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth. ANTHONY RUDD. 331 printed sermons, were always chosen from the Psalms, and so it was here, for he had selected those beautiful words of the Psalm in the Burial Service, in which we pray to be taught so " to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Elizabeth must have shuddered when she heard them, for to her anything at all suggestive of death was utterly abhorrent. " The queen," wrote Sir Robert Cecil once, in allusion to this royal infirmity, " hath a desperate ache in her right thumb, but will not be known of it, not the gout it cannot be, nor dare not be, but to sign will not be induced." 1 The words of his text suggested to him the sym- bolism of numbers, which he handled after the fantas- tical fashion of the times, and when, in pursuance of his topic, he remarked that seven times nine made sixty-three, the grand climacterical year, the queen, who knew what was coming, became much dis- turbed, and shut the window of her closet. At this the old bishop hastened to explain away his words as well as he could by remarking that too much importance must not be attached to such things, and he had no doubt that her majesty would still live a good many years longer, and concluded with the words of the Preacher, that describe, in solemn and affecting imagery, the last scene of human life darkly closing in with bodily infirmities and intel- lectual decays. When the sermon was finished, the queen, opening her closet window, told him that he "should have kept his arithmetick to himself," but that "she perceived the greatest clerks were not always the wisest men." On her return to the palace, after listening to the sermon 2 which had so exasperated her, she is reported to have thanked God, in the presence of her Court, that she was as strong as ever she had been, 1 State Papers, Elizabeth. August 9, 1597. 2 The account of it is in " Briefe View," pp. 160-163. 332 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. and that, despite the old bishop's scriptural allusion to " the daughters of music being brought low," her touch on the harpsichord and virginal was as good as it had been in the days of her youth. Her eyesight, too, she averred, was quite unimpaired, in proof of which statement she produced a gem with an inscription engraved in very small letters, which she challenged those around her to make out. Of course they were far too good courtiers to be able to do so, and left it to the queen, who easily deciphered it, and, as Harington tells us, " made herself merry with the standers by upon it." Notwithstanding this affectation of indifference, she sent the bishop a message by the Lord Keeper Puckering to keep to his house till she gave him leave to quit it, whereupon he humbled himself in the dust, and, from his " place of commitmet," wrote two letters, one to the Privy Council and the other to Sir Robert Cecil, in which he implored their intercession with the queen for his liberation, and solemnly declared, with but little truth it is to be feared, that what he had said about the climacterical year was only a general expression, and had no especial reference to her Majesty. He further promised to atone for his sermon by endeavouring to " make his tongue and pen hereafter the instrumentes of double comforte to hir highnes." 1 Such was his letter to the Council, and in a like strain he wrote to Cecil. 2 While a prisoner in his own lodgings at Gardiner's Lane, Westminster, he composed a prayer which quaintly began thus : "O Lord, I am now entred a good waye into the Clymacterycall yeare of myne age, w c h myne enemyes wish & hope to be fatall unto me." 8 It was a coincidence that the preacher 1 Cecil MSS., Hatfield, 39 (107). 2 Ibid., 39 (108). Date of letter, "the x of Aprill, 1596." 3 Ibid., 39 (106). Date, 1596. The climacterical years are 49 and 63. The bishop's was probably the former. ANTHONY RUDD. 333 and the queen should both be in their climacterical year, and possibly the former may have been thinking of himself when he preached the sermon that had given such dire offence. After a time he was liberated, but not forgiven, for, writing to Cecil a year afterwards to ask for prefer- ment for his chaplain, Robert Rudde, he apologized for doing so, as he was still in disgrace at Court. 1 Yet the queen, with a want of sincerity by no means unusual, affected sympathy with the bishop, and rebuked one of her ladies for speaking scornfully of him and his sermon. The royal pardon was at last granted, and we find him once more in the pulpit of the queen's chapel, when, strange to say, he again chose a funereal topic for his discussion, taking for his text the words of the Psalmist, " Ye are gods . . . But ye shall die like men " (Ps. Ixxxii. 6, 7). Her Majesty gave him sarcastic thanks. "Mr. Doctor, you have made me a good funeral sermon ; I may die when I will." 2 Being now once more in Court sunshine, and the Bishopric of Hereford being vacant, he thus applied for it to Cecil " JESUS. " R : honourable, I hubly beseeche yow to be the meanes to hir M l y for me that I may be traslated unto y e Bishobrike of Hereford now vacant. And I shalbe alwayes at your honours devotyo in all duti- full service. Thus referring my suite to yo r wise cosyderatyo I hubly take my leave of yo r Honour, at Aberguilly. Martii 17. i6oi[-2] Yo r Honours most huble at Cmaundemet. "ANTH. MENEVEN." 3 1 Cecil MSS., Date of letter, xx April, 1597. - Harleian MSS., February, 1602 ; Fuller's "Church History," v. .437, note. 3 Cecil MSS., Hatfield. 334 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. It need scarcely be said that so timid an application was not successful. Bishop Rudd died on March 7, 1615, and was buried in the parish church of Llangarthen, Carmarthenshire, where he had purchased a good estate called Aber- glazeney. By his wife, Anne Dalton, he had two sons, Anthony and Rice ; the elder died issueless, but the younger had offspring, and was created a baronet in 1628. The title became extinct in 1730. Anne Rudd, the sister of the last baronet, married Richard Gwynne of Tallaris, Carmarthenshire. 1 The episcopate of Bishop Rudd contained few incidents except a long diocesan squabble about the Chancellorship, 2 and the usual rough handling of recusants. Fuller records that "he wrought much on the Welsh by his wisdom, and won their affections" 3 an exceptional circumstance for a bishop in that country and at that time. WILLIAM REDMAN. 1540-1602. BISHOP OF NORWICH, 1595. BISHOP REDMAN was the son of a private gentleman, and was born at Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1563, and was elected to a fellowship which he held for ten years. Grindal recommended him to the queen, before whom he preached what the archbishop termed " a very good sermon." From 1 571 to 1 589 the benefices he received comprised the Rectories of Ovington and Toppesfield 1 Burke's " Extinct Baronetage." 2 Calendar State Papers, James I., vol. xxviii. p. 373. Date 1607. 3 Fuller's " Church History" (ed. Brewer), vol. v. p. 437. TOBIAS MATTHEW. 335 in Essex, Upper Hard res and Bishopbourne in Kent, the Archdeaconry of Canterbury, and a canonry of the cathedral. Of these some were given him by the queen, others by Grindal. He was chosen Prolocutor of Convocation in 1586 and 1588, and Archbishop Whitgift employed him to visit several churches in Kent. 1 He was an Ecclesiastical Com- missioner, and in 1593 was appointed with others to conduct the examination of seminary priests. 2 He earned the obloquy of the Puritans by the part he took in the deprivation of Cawdry. On January 12, 1594, he was consecrated Bishop of Norwich. It has been stated that his election was- opposed, but on what grounds is unknown. 3 Of his conduct as a bishop we have no information, but, as Whitgift was his patron, we may be sure that it was vigorous both against Puritan and recusant. A contemporary has sketched his character as being " one of the wisest of his coat." 4 Bishop Redman died at Norwich on September 25, 1602, and was buried in the cathedral. He was married, and left three sons and a daughter. TOBIAS MATTHEW. 1544-1628. BISHOP OF WORCESTER, 1594; DURHAM, 1595; ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, 1606. ARCHBISHOP MATTHEW was the son of John Matthew, a merchant of Bristol, in which city he was born in 1 544. 5 The name of the family had originally been 1 Cooper, " Athenae Cantabrigienses," ii. 334. 2 Calendar State Papers, Elizabeth (Jan. 7, 1593), vol. ccxliv. p. 304. 3 " Athenae Cantabrigienses," vol. ii. p. 553. 4 Calendar State Papers, vol. cclxxxv. 32, p. 249 : Carleton to Chamberlain (1602). 5 Archbishop Matthew, in a letter dated December 23, 1587, thus 336 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. Williams, but on an ancestor marrying an heiress of the name of Matthew, in the fifteenth century, the eldest son of the marriage assumed that name. 1 Tobias Matthew was educated at the Grammar School, Wells, Somersetshire, and at the University of Oxford, where he was a member of St. John's, University, and Christ Church successively. At this last college he was elected a student in 1559, and took his B.A. in 1563. Contrary to the wish of his family, and acting on the advice of his cousin, the celebrated Dr. Calfhill, he entered the ministry, and was ordained both deacon and priest by Bishop Jewel, 2 for whom he had a profound veneration, and whose hatred of Romanism he fully imbibed. He was, besides, so thoroughly versed in what was then the burning question of the age, the points at issue between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants, that in 1572 he was chosen to preach against Campian, the famous Jesuit, and in 1582 was one of the twenty- eight divines authorised by the Government to argue with " papists " on theology. 3 In 1569 he became Public Orator of his own University, in 1572 President of St. John's College, Oxford, in 1576 Dean of Christ Church, and in 1583 Dean of Durham. Between these dates he received the Archdeaconry of Bath, and stalls at Christ Church, Salisbury, and Wells. He was also chaplain to the queen, and subsequently held the Rectory of Bishop Wearmouth. The queen advanced him to the Deanery of Durham reluctantly, and only yielded to the influence mentions his own age: "Of my years, whereof it appeareth some question hath been made, to wit, 44 within two months if the Lord grant me so long to Iwe." His portrait is inscribed "A. 1616, set. sure 70. " 1 Hutchinson's " History of Durham," vol. i. p. 472, note. 2 " Hutton Correspondence," p. 80 : Letter of Dr. Matthew to Arch- bishop Hutton, January 2, 1590-1. 3 Strype's " Life of Whitgift," vol. i. p. 198. TOBIAS MATTHEW. 337 of Burghley and Leicester. She pretended to think him too young for so great an appointment, and also objected to him on the ground of his being married. 1 Probably, too, she did not forget what she must have deemed his impertinent behaviour, when as Prolocutor he presented, in 1581, the petition of the Lower House of Convocation for the removal of Archbishop Grindal's suspension. It is true she took no notice of it, even by a word, but it would have been very unlike Elizabeth to have forgotten such an inter- ference with her ecclesiastical prerogative. Shortly after his nomination to the Deanery of Durham, Matthew, preaching before the queen, drew her attention to the improper distribution of prefer- ment then so common, and remarked, that " rewards were not given in the Church to those who deserved them, and that no man should so live as that his labour should be lost." 2 The observation was very just, but it provoked an obvious retort, and her Majesty, probably before the dean had descended from the pulpit, exclaimed, " Well ! whosoever have missed their rewards, thou hast not lost thy labour." She showed her resentment at having been, in a manner, forced to give him the deanery, by keeping him out of its income so long that he had at last to write to Burghley imploring him to expedite matters. 3 He made an excellent dean, maintaining the rights and revenues of his cathedral against all invaders, and no consideration deterred him from his duty. He rejected the visitatorial authority claimed by Arch- bishop Sandys, though he had been his intimate friend for years, and successfully resisted the en- deavour of Sir Robert Cary, the queen's kinsman, to rob the deanery of the greater part of its revenues, under the pretence of their being concealed lands 1 Strype's "Annals," II. i. 515. 2 Lansdowne MSS. (Kennett), vol. i. 984. 3 Strype's " Annals," III. i. 257. 33$ LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. given for superstitious uses. But in the greatest matter of all, the chief function of every pastor, whether he be curate, dean, or bishop, that of preach- ing the gospel, he stood pre-eminent above all the divines of his time. During his nearly twelve years' tenure of the deanery he preached no less than 721 sermons, as appears from his diary. 1 When in 1587 there was a probability of the Bishopric of Salisbury becoming vacant, it was designed by the queen's ecclesiastical wire-pullers to send Matthew there. He strongly objected to the removal, 2 but his feelings would not have been considered if the see had become vacant. But in 1594 he applied for the Bishopric of London, vacant by the death of Aylmer. The following extract from his letter to Lord Burghley's secretary on that occasion is worth quoting, as giving us a peep into the practices of aspirants for mitres three centuries ago. " Playe howe they will, I praye you Looke on at my request. Shoote as they can, let me desyre you to geve ayme. It maie be by our sight or their ov r sight somewhat maie be affected to serve the tourne." 3 He concludes by expressing his gladness at having made the secretary's acquaintance, of which he assures him he will not repent, an ominously vague phrase under the circumstances, and savouring somewhat of a simoniacal purpose. The secretary wrote back informing the dean that he was instructed to say that he should not want Lord Burghley's "furtherance." 4 The bishopric, however, was given to the handsome and courtly Fletcher, the see of Worcester which he vacated being conferred on Matthew, much to his disgust, as appears from the very lukewarm letter of thanks he wrote to his patron Burghley. 1 Middleton's " Evangelica Biographia," vol. ii. p. 479. 2 Dr. Matthew to Sir F. Walsingham, February 26, 1587-8. 3 Lansdowne MSS., 77 (57) : From "the Court, I Sep. 1594." * Ibid., September i, 1594. TOBIAS MATTHEW. 339 Meanwhile, the rich Bishopric of Durham became void, and Matthew, without any solicitation on his part, was preferred to it. He was nominated on December i, 1594, and consecrated on April 13, 1595. On May n, he preached before the court, and a few days afterwards departed for his distant diocese, preaching on his way at the different towns where he stopped. In the performance of the spiritual duties pertaining to his office he showed a most commendable zeal and ability, and created an enthusiasm for the gospel and the ordinances of the Church among the dark and barbarous people of the North. Vast numbers presented themselves for confirmation, and on some occasions he laid hands on as many as a thousand children. At Hartlepool, indeed, the candidates for that rite were so numerous that he had to administer it in the churchyard. He also took great care in conferring holy orders, and every year of his episcopate increased numbers presented themselves for admission to the ministry. In his preaching he was almost apostolical. None of his sermons are in print, and we can but judge of them from the effect they are said to have produced and the crowds which flocked to hear them. Occasion- ally, but only occasionally, his audience was very small. At one church, though notice had been given the night before, he found it empty, there being not only no congregation but no clergyman. At another, where his own servant had announced the bishop's intention to preach two days before, the congregation consisted but of three persons, to whom, however, he delivered his sermon. Not discouraged, he occupied the pulpit on the following Sunday, when the church was crowded, the previous auditory of three having doubtless meanwhile spread his fame abroad. Preaching the gospel to the poor was at all times, as he himself declared, his " beloved work," and unless 340 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. hindered by sickness, or other sufficient cause, every Sunday found him in the pulpit of some parish church within his diocese, sometimes twice, if the clergyman was unable to preach. His discourses were no per- functory performances, but, as his own remarks on them in his diary show, gave him constant anxiety, lest either through his matter or his manner he might not have discharged his duty well. Nor were they mere rhetorical effusions to excite the feelings, but carefully prepared sermons to instruct the people in the principles and truths of the gospel. Hence, they were mostly written, though sometimes he preached extempore. 1 While thus zealous in the discharge of his spiritual duties, he by no means neglected the secularities of his office, and was a faithful custodian of the privi- leges and immunities of his see, as well as of its possessions, though to be so under such grasping monarchs as Elizabeth and James required not a little courage. Occasionally he failed with the former, as when he allowed her to present to a prebend in his gift. But when in 1601 a gentleman named Arrowsmith re- fused to plead on his trial, and, according to the barbarous law of the time, was pressed to death and his lands forfeited to the bishop as Prince Palatine, he appealed to the law against the attempt of the Crown to appropriate them, and gained a decree in his favour. 2 Notwithstanding this opposition to her will, Bishop Matthew retained the queen's favour to the end of her life, and his diary records his farewell interview with her not long before her death. His early impressions of her successor James had been unfavourable, and in 1594 he had thus expressed himself of that monarch : " I pray God the king's protestations be not too well believed, who is a deeper 1 Middleton's " Evangelica Biographia," ii. p. 480. 2 Hutchinson's " History of Durham," vol. i. p. 474. TOBIAS MATTHEW. 341 dissembler, by all men's judgment that know him best, than is thought possible for his years." 1 When, in April, 1603, King James passed through Berwick on his way to London to take possession of his new kingdom, Bishop Matthew preached before him there, and also at Newcastle, and attended him from that place to Durham, where he entertained him sumptuously in his castle. The monarch, de- lighted with the hospitality of which he had partaken^ and full of joy at the prospect before him, gave the bishop special thanks for the good cheer he had had, and the learned discourse he had heard, accompanied with promises of restoring to the See of Durham divers things of which it had been despoiled. But these promises were merely empty words. He was present at the Hampton Court Conference, and from the account he wrote of it to Archbishop Hutton, he seems to have agreed with the king in his dislike and distrust of the Puritans, though about the same time he endeavoured to revive the pro- phesyings which Queen Elizabeth had suppressed. As an adherent of James' policy towards both Romanist and Puritan he was made an Ecclesiastical Commissioner. In 1606 he was translated to the Archbishopric of York. The king's policy towards the Romanists tending, about 1613, to an abatement of the severity with which they had been treated, Archbishop Matthew addressed a strong protest to Carr, Earl of Somerset, against any toleration of them, or the least favour being shown to recusants. 2 During his tenure of the Primacy, York House, the archiepiscopal residence in London, was wrested from the see by an Act of Parliament, and given to the Duke of Buckingham in exchange for some lands in Yorkshire. The Bill, on its introduction, was 1 Stow's "Annals." 2 Calendar State Papers, James I., vol. Ixxvi. 40. 342 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. strongly opposed, but not by the archbishop, who was all compliance, and even wrote a letter to James, in which he thus expressed his gratitude for the exchange : " I blesse God from the bottome of my heart for geveing our Kinge so religious a dis- position as that he doth not so much as desire any- thing belonging to the Church without making an abundant recompense for the same." 1 Yet, when three years afterwards Charles I. ordered him to eject a clergyman who had been instituted to a living in his diocese, and appoint the royal nominee in his place, he refused to do so. 2 Archbishop Matthew died on March 29, 1628, and was buried in the Minster. He was a married prelate, his wife being Frances Barlow, daughter of the Bishop of Chichester, and widow of Matthew Parker, son of the Archbishop of Canterbury. By her he had three sons, Samuel, John, and Tobie, from the second of whom descendants of the Archbishop still exist. Tobie as a youth was so infamously profligate, that his father declared him to be one "quern ipsa sahis servare non potest" He subse- quently became a Jesuit. His character as a Christian and a bishop stands high, not only for his age but for any age. As a preacher he was in the first rank, and as dean and bishop preached nearly two thousand sermons. In his disposition and manners he was kindly and even humorous, though, in the opinion of some, he unbent at his own table rather more than a grave bishop should do. 1 State Papers, James I., vol. clxiv.-6i. Date, May n, 1624. 2 Calendar State Papers, Charles I., vol. Ixiv. 10. Date, May 22, 1627. WILLIAM MORGAN. 343 WILLIAM MORGAN. 1547-1604. BISHOP OF LLANDAFF, 1595 ; ST. ASAPH, 1601. BISHOP MORGAN was born at Gwibernant, a farm- house in the parish of Penmachno, Carnarvonshire, and though his father was but a small farmer, the future bishop claimed descent both on his side and his mother's from the royal tribes of Wales. He was educated by the chaplain of Sir John Wynne of Gwydir ; for grammar schools in Wales were then few and far between. The boy was early noted for his piety, and his mother used to declare that she expected great things of her " son William " by reason of his carefulness to say his " paternosters " by the creed-stones x stones marked with the sign of the cross, and set up by the wayside, that travellers might stop and repeat the Creed or the Lord's Prayer. He was a sizar of St. John's College, Cambridge, took his B.A. in 1563, and was instituted to the Vicarage of Welshpool in 1575, but resigned it in 1578 for that of Llanrhaiadr-yn-Mochnant, and in that year was appointed preacher by the University of Cambridge. Bishop Hughes was his patron, and besides Llanrhaiadyr gave him several sinecure bene- fices. Morgan, like his patron, seems to have been a pluralist, for he held in addition the livings of Llanwyddelan and Llanrullin. The work of Bishop Morgan'sJife, and which alone makes him conspicuous, was his translation of the Bible into Welsh, which he undertook at the sugges- tion of his diocesan. The portion of it, however, which embraced the New Testament was but a re- vision of the translation by Bishop R. Davies. The 1 " Life of Bishop Morgan," by the Rev. W. Hughes, p. 38. 344 LIVES OF THE ELIZABETHAN BISHOPS. intense labour involved in such an undertaking appears to have caused some slight neglect of his pastoral duties. Such a charge, at any rate, was brought against him by some of his parishioners, who, however, were scarcely aggrieved, since, they being Romanists, a visit from a heretic rector would have been the reverse of acceptable. Possibly they wanted to put a spoke in the wheel of his great Protestant undertaking, and preferred their accusation as the readiest way of doing it. As it turned out, it proved highly advantageous to Morgan, who, going up to London in 1587 to answer the charge before Arch- bishop Whitgift, found an effectual patron in that great prelate. The accusation vanished in smoke, but Whitgift made Morgan his chaplain, and supplied him with funds for the expense of printing the book, then nearly finished. Thus generously aided he com- pleted his work, which was published in 1588, and was the first translation of the whole Bible ever published in Welsh. Eight hundred copies of it were struck off, one for every church in Wales, which, when a second and revised edition by R. Parry appeared, thirty-two years afterwards, were found almost defaced by constant use. This great work, as has been observed, 1 served a great literary purpose, for it "enriched and fixed the diction of the Welsh language," and stood in the same relation to it as Shakespeare does to the English. Morgan now became famous, Welsh bards sung and chanted his praises. More substantial reward was long delayed, but it came at last, and he received the Bishopric of Llandaff, to which he was conse- crated on July 20, 1595. We meet with the following rather comical letter, written by him to Sir Robert Cecil, not long after his appointment : " Right honour- able, having stayed on fryday last in the afternoone 1 " Life," by Hughes, pp. 155, et seg. WILLIAM MORGAN. 345 in the closet from three o'clock untill eight, expecting your coming out of the previe chamber, I was forced with verie urgent busines at length to goe towardes Westminster." l It strikes us as something strange that an apology should be thought necessary under such circumstances. The income of LlandafT was so small that he received the royal licence to hold some of his livings " in commendam." Of his work there we have no record though he occupied the see for six years, being translated to that of St. Asaph in July, 1601. It had been vacant since the previous October, and Bishop Morgan, who had received an intimation that Sir Robert Cecil had an "honourable inclination to favoure " him, wrote him a gentle letter of reminder, suspiciously, if not somewhat simoniacally, accom- panied with a ** smalle newe yeares guifte beinge cosen German to the widowes two mites." '" It has been said 3 that the translation of Bishop Morgan to St. Asaph was by the express order of the queen, but the authority for the statement is comparatively recent, and its truth very questionable. It has been further stated that it was objected to, and that not merely on his own account but also on his wife's, and that it was only by the influence of Sir John Wynne, of Gwydir, the prince in Wales, that he was